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A BRIEF 
HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

A HISTORY OF THE PRACTICE AND 

PROGRESS AND ORGANIZATION 

OF EDUCATION 

BY ( '■ 

ELLWOOD Pt CUBBERLEY 

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

BOSTON V,^w YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO 



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« 



COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY 

Copyright, 1920, by Ellwood P. Cubberley 

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



.2.^^ <^ 



CAMBRIDGE • MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. 

AUG 19 1922 



PREFACE 

The present volume is an abridgment and condensation of my 
History of Education, issued in 1920, and has been prepared to 
meet the needs of normal schools and colleges which desire to 
teach the general history of education, but which do not have 
the time or the inclination to go into the subject in such detail 
as is given in the larger volume above referred to. The general 
plan of the two books is the same. 

Like the larger History of Education, the present volume is a 
history of the practice and progress and organization of educa- 
tion itself, rather than a history of educational theory, and pre- 
sents the history of education as a phase of the history of the rise 
and development and spread of our Western civilization. As in 
the larger volume, I have tried here to present such a picture of 
the rise, struggle for existence, growth, and recent great expan- 
sion of the idea of the improvability of the race and the elevation 
and emancipation of the individual through education as would 
be most illuminating and useful to students of the subject. To 
this end I have traced the great forward steps in the emancipation 
of the intellect of man, and the efforts to perpetuate the progress 
made ^through the organization of educational institutions to 
pass on to others what had been attained. 

To this end I have tried to hold to the main lines of the story, 
and have in consequence omitted reference to many theorists 
and reformers and events and schools which doubtless were im- 
portant in their land and time, but the influence of which on the 
main current of educational progress was, after all, but small. For 
such omission I have no apology to make. In their place I have 
introduced a record of world events and forces, not included in 
the usual history of education, which to me seem important as 
having contributed materially to the shaping and directing of 
intellectual and educational progress. While in the treatment 
major emphasis has been given to modern times,* I have never- 
theless tried to show how all modern education has been after all 
a development, a culmination, a flowering-out of forces and im- 
pulses which go far back in history for their origin. In a civiliza- 
tion such as we of to-day enjoy, with roots so deeply embedded in 



vi PREFACE 

the past as is ours, any adequate understanding of world prac- 
tices and of present-day world problems in education calls for some 
tracing of development to give proper background and perspec- 
tive. The rise of modern state schools systems, the variations in 
types found to-day in different lands, the new conceptions of the 
educational purpose, the rise of science study, the new functions 
which the school has recently assumed, the world-wide sweep of 
modern educational ideas, the rise of many entirely new types of 
schools and training within the past century — these and many 
other features of modern educational practice in progressive 
nations are better understood if viewed in the light of their 
proper historical setting. 

As in the larger volume, chief dependence for supplemental 
reading has been placed on the companion volume of Readings in 
the History of Education, and these have been fully cross-refer- 
enced to (R. 125; R. 216; etc.) in the pages of the text. With a 
number of copies of the Readings available for reference work, 
this text could be used without other library equipment. Depend- 
ing so largely on the companion volume for the necessary supple- 
mental readings, the chapter bibliographies have in consequence 
been reduced to a very few of the more valuable and more com- 
monly found references. On pages xv and xvi is also given a 
list of the more important general histories of education com- 
monly found in normal-school and college Hbraries, and to these 
reference may be made, as desired, for still further supplemental 
reading. To add to the teaching value of the book, the same 
series of Questions for Discussion based on the text, appended to 
each of the chapters of the larger volume, have been retained in 
this briefer text. The teacher of this text will find that the pos- 
session of a copy of the larger volume will be very useful, by 
reason of the large amount of additional illustrative material it 
will supply. 

Ellwood p. Cubberley 

Stanford University, Cat. 
June 19, 1922 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

THE ANCIENT WORLD 

FOUNDATION ELEMENTS OF OUR WESTERN CIVILIZATION 
GREECE — ROME — CHRISTIANITY 

Chapter I. The Old Greek Education 

I. Greece and its People 5 

II. Early Education in Greece 7 

Chapter II. Later Greek Education 

III. The New Greek Education .19 

Chapter III. The Education and Work of Rome 

I. The Romans and their Mission 28 

30 



II. The Period of Home Education . 

III. The Transition to School Education 

IV. The School System as finally established 
V. Rome's Contribution to Civilization 

Chapter IV. The Rise and Contribution of Chris- 
tianity 



31 

33 
38 



I. The Rise and Victory of Christianity .... 44 
II. Educational and Governmental Organization of the 

Early Church \ .50 

III. What the Middle Ages started with • • • • 55 



PART II 

THE MEDIEVAL WORLD 

THE DELUGE OF BARBARISM; THE MEDIEVAL STRUGGLE 

TO PRESERVE AND REESTABLISH CIVILIZATION 

Chapter V. New Peoples in the Empire .... 63 

Chapter VI. Education during the Early Middle Ages 

I. Condition and Preservation of Learning . . .71 

Chapter VII. Education during the Early Middle 
Ages 

II. Schools established and Instruction provided . . 83 



viii CONTENTS 

Chapter VIII. Influences tending toward a Revival 
OF Learning 

I. Moslem Learning from Spain 
11. The Rise of Scholastic Theology 

III. Law and Medicine as New Studies . 

IV. Other New Influences and Movements . 

Chapter IX. The Rise of the Universities 



96 
99 

lOI 

104 
113 



PART III 

THE TRANSITION FROM MEDIEVAL TO 
MODERN ATTITUDES 

THE RECOVERY OF THE ANCIENT LEARNING; THE 

REAWAKENING OF SCHOLARSHIP; AND THE RISE 

OF RELIGIOUS AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 

Chapter X. The Revival of Learning 129 

Chapter XL Educational Results of the Revival of 

Learning 142 

Chapter XI I. The Revolt against Authority . . .153 

Chapter XIII. Educational Results of the Protestant 
Revolts 

I. Among Lutherans AND Anglicans 164 

Chapter XIV. Educational Results of the Protestant 
Revolts 

11. Among Calvinists AND Catholics 175 

Chapter XV. Educational Results of the Protestant 
Revolts 

III. The Reformation AND American Education . . . 189 
Chapter XVI. The Rise of Scientific Inquiry . . . 205 

Chapter XVII. The New Scientific Method and the 

Schools 

\ 

^ I. Humanistic Realism 213 

"-" II. Social Realism -2x6 

III. Sense Realism 218 

IV. Realism and the Schools 225 

'.^ Chapter XVIII. Theory and Practice by the Middle 
OF the Eighteenth Century 
I. Pre-Eighteenth-Century Educational Theories . . 229 
II. Mip-Eighteenth-Century Educational Conditions . 232 



CONTENTS ix 

PART IV 

MODERN TIMES 

THE ABOLITION OF PRIVILEGE; THE RISE OF DEMOCRACY; 

A NEW THEORY FOR EDUCATION EVOLVED; 

THE STATE TAKES OVER THE SCHOOL 

Chapter XIX. The Eighteenth a Transition Century 

1. Work of the Benevolent Despots of Continental ^ 

Europe 254 

II. The Unsatisfied Demand for Reform in France . . 259 

III. England the First Democratic Nation . . .261 

IV. Institution of Constitutional Government and Re- 

ligious Freedom in America 267 

V. The French Revolution sweeps away Ancient Abuses 270 , 

/ 

Chapter XX. The Beginnings of National Education 

I. New Conceptions of the Educational Purpose . . 275 

II. The New State Theory IN France 276 

III. The New State Theory IN America 284 

Chapter XXI. A New Theory and Subject-Matter for -^ " 
the Elementary School 

I. The New Theory stated 291 ; 

II. German Attempts to work out a New Theory . . 294 

III. The Work and Influence OF Pestalozzi .... 297 

IV. Redirection of the Elementary School .... 303 

Chapter XXII. National Organization in Prussia ! 

I. The Beginnings of National Organization . . . 308 
II. A State School System at last created . . . 314 

Chapter XXIII. National Organization in France . 324 ^ 

Chapter XXIV. The Struggle for National Organiza- 
tion IN England 

I. The Charitable-Voluntary Beginnings .... 335 

II. The Period of Philanthropic Effort .... 338 

III. The Struggle for National Education .... 344 

Chapter XXV. Awakening an Educational Conscious- 
ness IN the United States 

I. Early National Attitudes and Interests . . . 353 

II. Awakening an Educational Consciousness . . . 357 

III. Social, Political, and Economic Influences - . . 363 

IV. Alignment of Interests, and Propaganda . . . 367 



X CONTENTS 

Chapter XXVI. The American Battle for Free State 
Schools 

I. The Battle for Tax Support 

II. The Battle to Eliminate the Pauper-School Idea 

III. The Battle to make the Schools entirely Free . 

IV. The Battle to establish School Supervision 
V. The Battle to Eliminate Sectarianism . 

VI. The Battle to Establish the American High School 
VII. The State University crowns the System 



370 
373 
376 

378 
381 
384 
388 

< Chapter XXVII. Education becomes a National Tool 

I. Spread of the State-Control Idea 395 

II. New Modifying F^orces 404 

III. Effect of These Changes ON Education .... 408 

Chapter XXVI 1 1 . New Conceptions of the Educational 
Process 

I. The Psychological Organization of Elementary In- 
struction 413 

II. New Ideas from Herbartian Sources .... 419 

III. The Kindergarten, Play, and Manual Activities . 424 

IV. The Addition of Science Study 430 

V. Social Meaning of these Changes 434 

Chapter XXIX. New Tendencies and Expansions 

I. Political 440 

II. Sociological 446 

J Conclusion; The Future 456 

Index i 



LIST OF FIGURES 

1. Ancient Greece and the ^^gean World 4 

2. A Greek Boy 9 

3. An Athenian Inscription 11 

4. Greek Writing-Materials 11 

5. A Greek Counting-Board n 

6. Socrates 22 

7. The Early Peoples of Italy, and the Extension of the 

Roman Power 28 

8. The Principal Roman Roads 29 

9. Roman Writing-Materials 33 

10. A Roman Counting-Board 34 

11. The Roman Voluntary Educational System, as finally 

EVOLVED 37 

12. A Bishop 52 

13. A German War Chief 64 

14. Romans destroying a German Village 65 

15. A Typical Monastery of Southern Europe . . . .73 

16. Charlemagne's Empire, and the Important Monasteries of 

the Time 75 

17. Where the Danes ravaged England 80 

18. An Outer Monastic School 83 

19. A Squire being knighted 89 

30. A Knight of the Time of the First Crusade .... 90 

21. Showing Centers OF Moslem Learning 97 

22. Showing Location of the Chief Universities founded be- 

fore 1600 114 

23. New College, AT Oxford .117 

24. Library of the University of Leyden, in Holland . . .119 

25. A University Lecture and Lecture Room 121 

26. Petrarch 131 

27. Boccaccio 132 

28. Bookcase and Desk in the Medicean Library at Florence 135 

29. An Early Sixteenth-Century Press 136 

30. The World as known to Christian Europe before Colum- 

bus 137 

31. College de France 145 

32. JoHANN Sturm 146 

33. Showing the Results of the Protestant Revolts . . .157 

34. huldreich zwingli i58 

35. John Calvin ..." 159 

36. Evolution of German State School Control . . . . i6q 



xii LIST OF FIGURES 

37. A Dutch Village School 177 

38. Ignatius de Loyola 179 

39. Tendencies in Educational Development in Europe, 1500 

TO 1700 186 

40. Map showing the Religious Settlements in America . . 190 

41. Homes of the Pilgrims, and their Route to America . . 192 

42. Where Yale College was founded 196 

43. An Old Quaker MEETiNci-HousE and School at Lampeter, 

Pennsylvania 199 

44. The Loss and RECOvDi^Y of the Sciences 211 

45. Francois Rabelais 214 

46. John Milton 215 

47. Michel de Montaigne 216 

48. John Locke 217 

49. A Horn Book 234 

50. The Westminster Catechism 236 

51. Frontispiece to Noah Webster's "American Spelling 

Book" 237 

52. A "Christian Brothers" School 239 

53. A Charity-School Girl in Uniform 241 

54. A Charity-School Boy in Uniform 241 

55. Advertisement for a Teacher to let 242 

56. A School Whipping-Post . . . . . . . . . 244 

57. An Eighteenth-Century German School 244 

58. A Pennsylvania Academy 248 

59. Rousseau 276 

60. La Chalotais 277 

61. RoLLAND . . 277 

62. Diderot 278 

63. Count de Mirabeau 279 

64. Talleyrand 280 

65. Condorcet 281 

66. The Institute of France 281 

67. Lakanal 283 

68. Thomas Jefferson 287 

69. The Rousseau Monument at Geneva 292 

70. Basedow 294 

71. The Scene of Pestalozzi's Labors 298 

72. Fellenberg 303 

73. The School of a Handworker 310 

74. DiNTER 316 

75. DiESTERWEG 316 

76. The Prussian State School System created . . . .321 

77. Victor Cousin 330 

78. Outline of the Main Fe.\tures'of the French State 

School System 331 



79 



LIST OF FIGURES xiii 

A Ragged-School Pupil 33^ 

80. The Creators of the Monitorial System 339 

81. The Lancastrian Model School in Borough Road, South- 

WARK, London 340 

82. Monitors teaching Reading AT "Stations" . . . .341 

83. Robert Owen 343 

84. Lord Brougham 345 

85. Lord Macaulay 347 

86. The English Educational System as finally evolved . . 349 

87. "Model" School Building of the Public School Society . 361 

88. Evolution of the Essential Features of the American 

Public School System 362 

89. Dates of the Granting of Full Manhood Suffrage . . 365 

90. The First Free Public School in Detroit .... 372 

91. The Development of Secondary Schools in the United 

States 386 

92. The First High School in the United States .... 387 

93. The American Educational Ladder 392 

94. The Progress of Literacy in Europe by the Close of the 

Nineteenth Century 397 

95. The Japanese Two-Class School System 401 

96. The Chinese Educational Ladder 402 

97. Man Power before the Days of Steam 407 

98. The First Modern Normal School 416 

99. Herbert Spencer 432 

100. The Reverend Thomas H. Gallaudet teaching the Deaf 

AND Dumb 450 

loi. The Educational Problems of the Future . . . .457 



LIST OF PLATES 

FACING 

1. Saint Thomas Aquinas in the School of Albertus Magnus . 86 ^ 

2. Stratford-on-Avon Grammar School 170 ^ 

3. John Amos Comenius 222 ^ 

4. Pestalozzi Monument at Yverdon 300 '^ 

5. Two. Leaders in the Educational Awakening in the United 

States 378 ^ 

6. Two Leaders in the Reorganization of Educational Theory 424 ^ 



GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY 

In addition to the List of Readings and the Supplemental Ref- 
erences given in the chapter bibliographies, the following works, 
not cited in the chapter bibliographies, will be found in most 
libraries and may be consulted, on all points to which they are 
likely to apply, for additional material: 

I. GENERAL HISTORIES OF EDUCATION 

I. Davidson, Thomas. History of Education. 292 pp. New York, 
1900. 
Good on the interpretation of the larger movements of history. 

*3. Monroe, Paul. Text Book in the History of Education. 772 pp. New 
York, 1905. 

Our most complete and scholarly history of educational theory. This 
'volume should be consulted freely. See analytical table of contents. 

3. Munroe, Jas. P. The Educational Ideal. 262 pp. Boston, 1895. 
Contains very good short chapters on the educational reformers. 

*4. Graves, F. P. A History of Education. 3 vols. New York, 1909-13. 
Vol. I. Before the Middle Ages. 304 pp. 
Vol. II. During the Middle Ages. 314 pp. 
Vol. III. In Modern Tiihes. 410 pp. 

These volumes contain valuable supplementary material, and good chap- 
ter bibliographies. 

5. Hart, J. K. Democracy in Education. 418 pp. New York, 1918. 

An interpretation of educational progress. 

6. Quick, R. H. Essays on Educational Reformers. 568 pp. 2d ed., 
New York, 1890. 

A series of well-written essays on the work of the theorists in education 
since the time of the Renaissance. 

*7. Parker, S. C. The History of Modern Elementary Education. 506 pp. 
Boston, 191 2. 

An excellent treatise on the development of the theory for our modem 
elementary school, with some good descriptions of modern practice. 

II. GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES OF EDUCATION 

I. Cubberley, E. P. Syllabus of Lectures on the History of Education. 
358 pp. New York. First ed., 1902; 2d ed., 1905. 

Gives detailed and classified bibliographies for all phases of the subject. 
Now out of print, but may be found in most normal school and college 
libraries, and many pubUc libraries. • 



xvi GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY . 



III. CYCLOPEDIAS 

* I. Monroe, Paul, Editor. Cyclopedia of Education. 5 vols. New York, 

1911-13- 

The most important Cyclopaedia of Education in print. Contains ex- 
cellent articles on all historical points and events, with good selected bib- 
liographies. A work that should be in all libraries, and freely consulted 
in using this Text. Its historical articles are too numerous to cite in the 
chapter bibliographies, but, due to the alphabetical arrangement and good 
cross-referencing, they may be found easily. 

*2. Watson, Foster, Editor. The Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Educa- 
tion. 4 voli. London and New York, 1921-22. 

The most recent Cyclopedia of Education, presenting recent contribu- 
tions and changes, and outlining the educational systems of most world 
nations. 

*3. Encyclopcedia Britannica. nth ed., 29 vols. Cambridge, 19 lo-ii. 

Contains numerous important articles on all types of historical topics, 
and excellent biographical sketches. Should be consulted freely in using this 
Text. 

IV. MAGAZINES 

* I . Barnard's A merican Journal of Education. Edited by Henry Barnard. 

31 vols. Hartford, 1855-81. Reprinted, Syracuse, 1902. Iruiex 
to the 31 vols, published by the United States Bureau of Education, 
Washington, 1892. 

A wonderful mine of all kinds of historical and educational information, 
and should be consulted freely on all points relating to European or American 
educational history. 

In the chapter bibliographies, as above, the most important 
references are indicated with an asterisk (*). 



^ BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



PART I 
THE ANCIENT WORLD 

THE FOUNDATION ELEMENTS OF OUR 

WESTERN CIVILIZATION 

GREECE — ROME — CHRISTIANITY 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

• 

CHAPTER I 
THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 

Introduction. The Civilization which we of to-day enjoy is a 
very complex thing, made up of many different contributions, 
some large and some small, from people in many different lands 
and different ages. To trace all these contributions back to their 
sources would be a task impossible of accomplishment, and, while 
specific parts would be interesting, for our purposes they would 
not be important. Especially would it not be profitable for us to 
attempt to trace the development of minor features, or to go back 
to the rudimentary civilizations of primitive peoples. The early 
development of civilization among the Chinese, the Hindoos, the 
Persians, the Egyptians, or the American Indians all alike present 
features which to some form a very interesting study, but our 
western civilization does not go back to these as sources, and 
consequently they need not concern us in the study we are about 
to begin. 

The civilization which we now know and enjoy has come down 
to us from four main sources. The Greeks, the Romans, and the 
Christians laid the foundations, and in the order named, and the 
study of the early history of our western civilization is a study 
of the work and the blending of these three main forces. It is 
upon these three foundation stones, superimposed upon one an- 
other, that our modern European and American civilization has 
been developed. The Germanic tribes, overrunning the bound- 
aries of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries, 
added another new force of largest future significance, and one 
which profoundly modified all subsequent progress and develop- 
ment. To these four main sources we have made many additions 
in modern times, building an entirely new superstructure on the 
old foundations, but the groundwork of our civilization is com- 
posed of these four foundation elements. For these reasons a 
history of even modern education almost of necessity goes back, 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



briefly at least, to the work and contributions of these ancient 
peoples. 

Starting, then, with the work of the Greeks, we shall state 
briefly the contributions to the stream of civilization which have 
come down to us from each of the important historic peoples or 
groups or forces, and shall trace the blending and assimilating 




Fig. I. Ancient Greece and the ^gean World 

Superimposed on the East-North-Central Group of American States, to show rela- 
tive size. Dotted lines indicate the boundaries of the American States — Illinois, 
Indiana, Kentucky, etc. All of Greece will be seen to be a little less than half the 
size of the State of Illinois, the ^gean Sea about the size of the State of Indiana, 
and Attica not quite so large as two average-size Illinois counties. 

processes of the centuries. While describing briefly the educa- 
tional institutions and ideas of the different peoples, we shall be 
far less concerned, as we progress down the centuries, with the 
educational and philosophical theories advanced by thinkers 
among them than with what was actuafly done, and with the last- 
ing contributions which they made to our educational practices 
and to our present-day civilization. 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 5 

I. GREECE AND ITS PEOPLE 

The land. Ancient Greece, or Hellas as the Greeks called their 
homeland, was but a small country. The map just given shows 
the iEgean world superimposed on the States of the old North- 
west Territory, from which it may be seen that the Greek main- 
land was a Httle less than half as large as the State of Illinois. 
Attica, where a most wonderful intellectual life arose and flour- 
ished for centuries, and whose contributions to civilization were 
the chief glory of Greece, was smaller than two average-size 
Illinois counties, and about two thirds the size of the Httle State 
of Rhode Island. The country was sparsely populated, except in 
a few of the City-States, and probably did not, at its most pros- 
perous period, contain much more than a milKon and a half of 
people — citizens, foreigners, and slaves included. 

The government. Politically, Greece was composed of a num- 
ber of independent City-States of small size. They had been set- 
tled by early tribes, which originally held the land in common. 
Attica, with its approximately seven hundred square miles of 
territory, was an average-size City-State. The central city, the 
surrounding farming and grazing lands, and the coastal regions 
all taken together, formed the State, the citizens of which — city- 
residents, farmers, herdsmen, and fishermen - — controlled the 
government. There were in all some twenty of these City-States 
in mainland Greece, the most important of which were Attica, 
of which Athens was the central city; Laconia, of which Sparta 
was the central city; and Boeotia, of which Thebes was the central 
city. Some of the States developed democracies, of which class 
Athens became the most notable example, while some were gov- 
erned as oligarchies. Of all the different States but few played 
any conspicuous part in the history of Greece. Of these few 
Attica stands clearly above them all as the leader in thought and 
art and the most progressive in government. Here, truly, was a 
most wonderful people, and it is with Attica that the student of 
the history of education is most concerned. The best of all 
Greece was there. 

The people. The Greeks were among the first of the Euro- 
pean peoples to attain to any high degree of civilization. Their 
story runs back almost to the dawn of recorded history. As 
early as 3500 B.C. they were in an advanced stone age, and by 
2500 B.C. had reached the age of bronze. The destruction of 



6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Homer's Troy dates back to 1200 B.C., and the Homeric poems 

to HOC B.C. 

The lower part of the Greek peninsula, known as Laconia, was 
settled by the Dorian branch of the Greek family, a practical, 
forceful, but a wholly unimaginative people. Sparta was their 
most important city. To the north were the Ionic Greeks, a 
many-sided and a highly imaginative people. Athens was their 
chief city. In the settlement of Laconia the Spartans imposed 
themselves as an army of occupation on the original inhabitants, 
whom they compelled to pay tribute to them, and established a 
military monarchy in southern Greece. The people of Attica, on 
the other hand, absorbed into their own body the few earlier set- 
tlers of the Attic plain. They also established a monarchy, but, 
being a people more capable of progress, this later evolved into a 
democracy. The people of Attica were in consequence a some- 
what mixed race, which possibly in part accounts for their greater 
intellectual abiHty and versatiHty. 

Classes in the population. Greece, as was the ancient world in 
general, was built politically on the dominant power of a ruling 
class. In consequence, all of course could not become citizens 
of the State, even after a democracy had been evolved. Citizen- 
ship came with birth and proper education, and, before 509 B.C., 
foreigners were seldom admitted to privileges in the State. Only 
a male citizen might hold office, protect himself in the courts, own 
land, or attend the public assemblies. Only a citizen, too, could 
participate in the religious festivals and rites, for religion was an 
affair of the ruling families of the State. 

Even more, citizenship everywhere in the earlier period was a 
degree to be attained to only after proper education and prelim- 
inary military and political training. This not only made some 
form of education necessary, but confined educational advantages 
to male youths of proper birth. There was of course no purpose 
in educating any others. Education in Greece was essentially 
the education of the children of the ruling class to perpetuate the 
rule of that class. 

Beneath both citizens and foreign residents was a great founda- 
tion mass of working slaves, who rendered all types of menial and 
intellectual services. Sailors, household servants, field workers, 
clerks in shops and offices, accountants, and pedagogues were 
among the more common occupations of slaves in Greece. Many 
of these had been citizens and learned men of other City-States 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 7 

or countries, but had been carried off as captives in some war. 
This was a common practice in the ancient world, slavery being 
the lot of alien conquered people almost without exception. 

Education, then, being only for the male children of citizens, 
and citizenship a degree to be attained to on the basis of education 
and training, let us next see in what that education consisted, and 
what were its most prominent characteristics and results. 

II. EARLY EDUCATION IN GREECE 

Some form of education that would train the son of the citizen 
for participation in the reUgious observances and duties of a citi- 
zen of the State, and would prepare the State for defense against 
outward enemies, was everywhere in Greece recognized as a pubHc 
necessity, though its provision, nature, and extent varied in the 
different City-States. We have clear information only as to 
Sparta and Athens, and will consider only these two as types. 
Sparta is interesting as representing the old Greek tribal training, 
from which Sparta never progressed. Many of the other Greek 
City-States probably maintained a system of training much like 
that of Sparta. Such educational systems stand as undesirable 
examples of extreme state socialism, contributed little to our 
western civilization, and need not detain us long. It was Athens, 
and a few other City-States which followed her example, which 
presented the best of Greece and passed on to the modern world 
what was most valuable for civilization. 

I. Education in Sparta 

The people. The system of training which was maintained in 
Sparta was in part a reflection of the character of the people, and 
in part a result of its geographical location. A warlike people by 
nature, the Spartans were for long regarded as the ablest fighters 
in Greece. Laconia, their home, was a plain surrounded by 
mountains. They represented but a small percentage of the total 
population, which they held in subjection to them by their mih- 
tary power. The slaves (Helots) were often troublesome, and 
were held in check by many kinds of questionable practices. 
Education for citizenship with the Spartans meant education for 
usefulness in an intensely military State, where preparedness was 
a prerequisite to safety. Strength, courage, endurance, cunning, 
patriotism, and obedience were the virtues most highly prized, 
while the humane, literary, and artistic sentiments were neg- 
lected (R. i). 



8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The educational system. At birth the child was examined by 
a council of elders (R. i), and if it did not appear to be a promising 
child it was exposed to die in the mountains. If kept, the mother 
had charge of the child until seven if a boy, and still longer if a 
girl. At the beginning of the eighth year, and until the boy 
reached the age of eighteen, he lived in a pubhc barrack, where he 
was given little except physical drill and instruction in the Spar- 
tan virtues. His food and clothing were scant and his bed hard. 
Each older man was a teacher. Running, leaping, boxing, wres- 
tling, military music, military drill, ball-playing, the use of the 
spear, fighting, stealing, and laconic speech and demeanor con- 
stituted the course of study. From eighteen to twenty was spent 
in professional training for war, and frequently the youth was 
publicly whipped to develop his courage and endurance. For the 
next ten years — that is, until he was thirty years old — he was 
in the army at some frontier post. At thirty the young man was 
admitted to full citizenship and compelled to marry, though con- 
tinuing to live at the public barrack and spending his energies in 
training boys (R. i). Women and girls were given gymnastic 
training to make them strong and capable of bearing strong chil- 
dren. The family was virtually suppressed in the interests of 
defense and war. The intellectual training consisted chiefly in 
committing to memory the Laws of Lycurgus, learning a few 
selections from Homer, and listening to the conversation of the 
older men. 

As might naturally be supposed, Sparta contributed little of 
anything to art, literature, science, philosophy, or government. 
She left to the world some splendid examples of heroism, as for 
example the sacrifice of Leonidas and his Spartans to hold the pass 
at Thermopylae, and a warning example of the brutalizing effect 
on a people of excessive devotion to military training. It is a 
pleasure to turn from this dark picture to the wonderful (for the 
time) educational system that was gradually developed at Athens. 

2. The old Athenian education 

Schools and teachers. Athenian education divides itself nat- 
urally into two divisions — the old Athenian training which pre- 
vailed up to about the time of the close of the Persian Wars 
(479 B.C.) and was an outgrowth of earlier tribal observances and 
practices, and later Athenian education, which characterized the 
period of maximum greatness of Athens and afterward. We shall 
describe these briefly, in order. 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 



The state military socialism of Sparta made no headway in 
more democratic Attica. The citizens were too individuaHstic, 
and did their own thinking too well to permit the establishment 
of any such plan. While education was a necessity for citizen- 
ship, and the degree could not be obtained without it, the State 
nevertheless left every citizen free to make his own arrangements 
for the education of his sons, or to omit 
such education if he saw fit. Only instruc- 
tion in reading, writing, music, and gym- 
nastics were required. If family pride, and 
the sense of obligation of a parent and a 
citizen were not sufficient to force the father 
to educate his son, the son was then by law 
freed from the necessity of supporting his 
father in his old age. The State supervised 
education, but did not establish it. 

The teachers were private teachers, and 
derived their livelihood from fees. These 
naturally varied much with the kind of 
teacher and the wealth of the parent, much 
as private lessons in music or dancing do 
to-day. As was common in antiquity, 
the teachers occupied but a low social 
position (R. 5), and only in the higher 

schools of Athens was their standing of any importance. Greek 
literature contains many passages which show the low social 
status o£ the schoolmaster. Schools were open from dawn to 
dark. The school discipline was severe, the rod being freely used 
both in the school and in the home. There were no Saturday 
and Sunday holidays or long vacations, such as we know, but 
about ninety festival and other state holidays served to break the 
continuity of instruction (R. 3). The schoolrooms were provided 
by the teachers, and were wholly lacking in teaching equipment, 
in any modern sense of the term. However, but little was needed. 
The instruction was largely individual instruction, the boy com- 
ing, usually in charge of an old slave known as a pedagogue, to re- 
ceive or recite his lessons. The teaching process was essentially 
a telling and a ieaming-by-heart procedure. 

For the earlier years there were two schools which boys at- 
tended — the music and literary school, and a school for physical 
training. Boys probably spent part of the day at one school and 




Fig. 2. A Greek Boy 



• lo A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

part at the other, though this is not certain. They may have 
attended the two schools on alternate days. From sixteen to 
eighteen, if his parents were able, the boy attended a state-sup- 
ported gymnasium, where an advanced type of physical training 
was given. As this was preparatory for the next two years of 
army service, the gymnasia were supported by the State more as 
preparedness measures than as educational institutions, though 
they partook of the nature of both. 

Early childhood. As at Sparta the infant was examined at 
birth, but the father, and not a council of citizens, decided whether 
or not it was to be '' exposed " or preserved. Three ceremonies, 
of ancient tribal origin, marked the recognition and acceptance of 
the child. If approved, the child's name was entered on the 
registry of the clan, and he might then aspire to citizenship and 
inherit property from his parent (R. 4). 

Up to the age of seven both boys and girls grew up together in 
the home, under the care of the nurse and mother, engaging in 
much the same games and sports as do children anywhere. From 
the first they were carefully disciphned for good behavior and for 
the establishment of self-control (R. 3)- After the age of seven 
the boy and girl parted company in the matter of their education, 
the girl remaining closely secluded in the home (women and chil- 
dren were usually confined to the upper floor of the house) and 
being instructed in the household arts by her mother, while the 
boy went to different teachers for his education. Probably many 
girls learned to read and write from their mothers or nurses, and 
the daughters of well-to-do citizens learned to spin, weave, sew, and 
embroider. Music was also a common accompHshment of women. 

The school of the grammatist. A Greek boy, unlike a mod- 
ern school child, did not go to one teacher. Instead he had at 
least two teachers, and sometimes three. To the grammatist, who 
was doubtless an evolution from an earUer tribal scribe, he went 
to learn to read and write and count. The grammatist repre- 
sented the earhest or primary teacher. To the music teacher, 
who probably at first taught reading and writing also, he went 
for his instruction in music and literature. Finally, to the 
palcBstra he went for instruction in physical training (R. 3). 

Reading was taught by first learning the letters, then syllables, 
and finally words. Plaques of baked earth, on which the alpha- 
bet was written, like the more modern hornbook (see Figure 
49), were frequently used. The ease with which modern children 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 



II 







Ol/Fi Ka1 TpJ /^t, 




Fig. 3. An Athenian Inscription 
A decree of the Council and Assembly, 



learn to read was unknown in Greece. Reading was very difficult 
to learn, as accentuation, punctuation, spacing between words, 
and small letters had not as 
yet been introduced. As a re- 
sult the study required much 
time, and much personal in- 
genuity had to be exercised 
in determining the meaning 
of a sentence. The inscrip- 
tion shown in Figure 3 will 
illustrate the difficulties quite 
well. The Athenian accent, 
too, was hard to acquire. 

The pupil learned to write dating from about 450 b.c. Note the diffi- 
V, f,^^f trflPintT with the «;tv- ^"^^^ ^^ ^'"^^^S to read, without any punc- 
by tirst tracmg, Wltn me sty ^.^ation, and with only capital letters. 

lus, letters cut in wax tablets, 

and later by copying exercises set for him by his teacher, using 
the wax tablet and writing on his knee. Still later the pupil 
learned to write with ink on papyrus or parchment, though, due 
to the cost of parchment in ancient times, this was not greatly 
used. Slates and paper were of course unknown in Greece. 

There was little need for arithmetic, and but little was taught. 
Arithmetic such as we teach would 
have been impossible with their cum- 
brous system of notation. Only the 
elements of counting were taught, the 
Greek using his fingers or a counting- 
board, such as is shown in Figure 5, 
to do his simple reckoning. 

Great importance of reading and 
literature. After the pupil had learned 



Fig. 5 
A Greek Counting-Board 

Pebbles of different size or color 
were used for thousands, hun- 
dreds, tens, and units. Their 
position on the board gave them 
their values. The board now 
shows the total 15,379. 



Five Times 



Unity 




Thou Bands 1 


• •• 




Hun 


dredB 




• •• 


Te 


ns 


• 


• • 


Un 


its 


• 


• ••• 



Fig. 4. Greek Writing-Materials 



to read, much attention was given to accentuation and articula- 
tion, in order to secure beautiful reading. Still more, in read- 



12 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ing or reciting, the parts were acted out. The Greeks were a na- 
tion of actors, and the recitations in the schools and the acting 
in'the theaters gave plenty of opportunity for expression. There 
were no schoolbooks, as we know them. The master dictated 
and the pupils wrote down, or, not uncommonly, learned by 
heart what the master dictated. Ink and parchment were now 
used, the boy making his own schoolbooks. Homer was the first 
and the great reading book of the Greeks, the Iliad and the 
Odyssey being the Bible of the Greek people. 

The music school. The teacher in this school gradually sepa- 
rated himself from the grammatist, and often the two were found 
in adjoining rooms in the same school. In his functions he suc- 
ceeded the wandering poet or minstrel of earlier times. Music 
teachers were common in all the City-States of Greece. To this 
teacher the boy went at first to recite his poetry, and after the 
thirteenth year for a special music course. The teacher was 
known as a citharist, and the instrument used was the seven- 
stringed lyre. Rhythm, melody, and the feeling for measure and 
time were important in instruction, whose office was to soothe, 
purge, and harmonize man within and make him fit for moral 
instruction through the poetry with which their music was ever 
associated. Instead of being a distinct art, as with us, and taught 
by itself, music with the Greeks was always subsidiary to the 
expression of the spirit of their literature, and in aim it was for 
moral-training ends. 

The first lessons taught the use of the instrument, and the sim- 
ple chants of the religious services were learned. As soon as the 
pupil knew how to play, the master taught him to render the 
works of the great lyric poets of Greece. Poetry and music to- 
gether thus formed a single art. At thirteen a special music 
course began which lasted until sixteen, but which only the sons 
of the more well-to-do citizens attended. Every boy, though, 
learned some music, not that he might be a musician, but that he 
might be musical and able to perform his part at social gatherings 
and ■ participate in the religious services of the State. Profes- 
sional playing was left to slaves and foreigners, and was deemed 
unworthy a free man and a citizen. Professionalism in either 
music or athletics was regarded as disgraceful. The purpose of 
both activities was harmonious personal development, which the 
Greeks believed contributed to moral worth. 

The palaestra; gymnastics. Very unlike our modem educa- 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 13 

tion, fully one half of a boy's school life, from eight to sixteen, was 
given to sports and games in another school under different teach- 
ers, known as the palcBstra. The work began gradually, but by 
fifteen had taken precedence over other studies. As in music, 
harmonious physical development and moral ends were held to 
be of fundamental importance. The standards of success were 
far from our modern standards. To win the game was of little 
significance; the important thing was to do the part gracefully 
and, for the person concerned, well. To attain to a graceful and 
dignified carriage of the body, good physical health, perfect con- 
trol of the temper, and to develop quickness of perception, self- 
possession, ease, and skill in the games were the aims — not mere 
strength or athletic prowess (R. 2). Only a few were allowed to 
train for participation in the Olympian games. 

The work began with children's games, contests in running, and 
ball games of various kinds. Deportment — how to get up, walk, 
sit, and how to achieve easy manners — was taught by the mas- 
ters. After the pupils came to be a little older there was a definite 
course of study, which included, in succession: (i) leaping and 
jumping, for general bodily and lung development; (2) running 
contests, for agihty and endurance; (3) throwing the discus, for 
arm exercise; (4) casting the javelin, for bodily poise and coordi- 
nation of movement, as well as for future use in hunting; (5) boxing 
and wrestling, for quickness, agility, endurance, and the control of 
the temper and passions. Swimming and dancing were also in- 
cluded for all, dancing being a slow and graceful movement of the 
body to music, to develop grace of motion and beauty of form, and 
to exercise the whole human being, body and soul. The minuet 
and some of our folk-dancing are our nearest approach to the 
Greek type of dancing, though still not like it. The modern part- 
ner dance was unknown in ancient Greece. 

The exercises were performed in classes, or in small groups. 
They took place in the open air, and on a dirt c^r sandy floor. 
They were accompanied by music - — usually the flute, played by 
a paid performer. A number of teachers looked after the boys, 
examining them physically, supervising the exercises, directing 
the work, and giving various forms of instruction. 

The gymnasial training, sixteen to eighteen. Up to this point 
the education provided was a private and a family affair. In the 
home and in the' school the boy had now been trained to be a gen- 
tleman, to revere the gods, to be moral and upright according to 



14 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Greek standards, and in addition he had been given that training 
in reading, writing, music, and athletic exercises that the State 
required parents to furnish. It is certain that many boys, whose 
parents could ill afford further expense for schooling, were allowed 
to quit the schools at from thirteen to fifteen. Those who ex- 
pected to become full citizens, however, and to be a part of the 
government and hold office, were required to continue until 
twenty years of age. Two years more were spent in schooling, 
largely athletic, and two years additional in military service. Of 
this additional training, if his parents chose and could afford it, 
the State now took control. 

For the years from sixteen to eighteen the boy attended a state 
gymnasium, of which two were erected outside of Athens by the 
State, in groves of trees, in 590 B.C. The boy now had for teach- 
ers a number of gymnasts of ability. The old exercises of the 
palcEstra were continued, but running, wrestling, and boxing 
were much emphasized. The youth learned to run in armor, 
while wrestling and boxing became more severe. He also learned 
to ride a horse, to drive a chariot, to sing and dance in the public 
choruses, and to participate in the pubHc state and religious 
processions. 

Still more, the youth now passed from the supervision of a fam- 
ily pedagogue to the supervision of the State. For the first time 
in his life he was now free to go where he desired about the city; 
to frequent the streets, market-place, and theater; to listen to 
debates and jury trials, and to witness the great games; and to 
mix with men in the streets and to mingle somewhat in public 
affairs. He saw little of girls, except his sisters, but formed deep 
friendships with other young men of his age. Aside from a re- 
quirement that he learn the laws of the State, his education during 
this period was entirely physical and civic. If he abused his Hb- 
erty he was taken in hand by public officials charged with the 
supervision of public morals. He was, however, still regarded as 
a minor, and his father (or guardian) was held responsible for his 
public behavior. 

The citizen-cadet years, eighteen to twenty. The supervision 
of the State during the preceding two years had in a way been 
joint with that of his father; now the State took complete control. 
At the age of eighteen his father took him before the proper au- 
thorities of his district or ward in the city, and presented him as a 
candidate for citizenship. He was examined morally and physi- 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 15 

cally, and if sound, and if the records showed that he was the 
legitimate son of a citizen, his name was entered on the register of 
his ward as a prospective member of it (R. 4). His long hair was 
now cut, he donned the black garb of the citizen, was presented to 
the people along with others at a pubHc ceremony, was publicly 
armed with a spear and a shield, and then, proceeding to one 
of the shrines of the city, on a height overlooking it, he solemnly 
took the Ephebic oath : 

I will never disgrace these sacred arms, nor desert my companion 
in the ranks. I will fight for temples and public property, both alone 
and with many. I will transmit my fatherland, not only not less, but 
greater and better, than it was transmitted to me. I will obey the 
magistrates who may at any time be in power. I will observe both the 
existing laws and those which the people may unanimously hereafter 
make, and, if any person seek to annul the laws or to set them at 
naught, I will do my best to prevent him, and will defend them both 
alone and with many. I will honor the religion of my fathers. And 
I call to witness Aglauros, Enyalios, Ares, Zeus, Thallo, Auxo, and 
Hegemone. 

He was now an Ephehos, or citizen-cadet, with still two years of 
severe training ahead of him before he could take up the full 
duties of citizenship. The first year he spent in and near Athens, 
learning to be a soldier. He did what recruits do almost every- 
where — drill, camp in the open, learn the army methods and dis- 
cipline, and march in public processions and take part in religious 
festivals. This first year was much like that of new troops in camp 
being worked into real soldiers. At the end of the year there was 
a public drill and inspection of the cadets, after which they were 
sent to the frontier. It was now his business to come to know his 
country thoroughly — its topography, roads, springs, seashores, 
and mountain passes. He also assisted in enforcing law and order 
throughout the country districts, as a sort of a state constabulary 
or rural police. At the end of this second year of practical train- 
ing the second examination was held, the cadet was now admitted 
to full- citizenship, and passed to the ranks of a trained citizen in 
the reserve army of defense, as does a boy in Switzerland to-day 

(R. 4). 

Results under the old Greek system. Such was the educa- 
tional system which was in time evolved from the earlier tribal 
practices of the citizens of old Athens. If we consider Sparta as 
representing the earlier tribal education of the Greek peoples, we 
see how far the Athenians,, due to their wonderful ability to make 



i6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

progress, were able to advance beyond this earlier type of prepa- 
ration for citizenship (R. 5). Not only did Athens surpass all 
Greece, but, for the first time in the history of the world, we find 
here, expressing itself in the education of the young, the modern, 
western, individualistic and democratic spirit, as opposed to the 
deadening caste and governmental systems of the East. Here first 
we find a free people living under political conditions which favored 
liberty, culture, and intellectual growth, and using their liberty 
to advance the culture and the knowledge of the people (R. 6). 

Here also we find, for the first time, the thinkers of the State 
deeply concerned with the education of the youth of the State, 
and viewing education as a necessity to make life worth living and 
secure the State from dangers, both within and without. To pre- 
pare men by a severe but simple and honest training to fear the 
gods, to do honest work, to despise comfort and vice, to obey the 
laws, to respect their neighbors and themselves, and to reverence 
the wisdom of their race, was the aim of this old education. The 
schooling for citizenship was rigid, almost puritanical, but it pro- 
duced wonderful results, both in peace and in war. Men thus 
trained guided the destinies of Athens during some two centuries, 
and the despotism of the East as represented by Persia could not 
defeat them at Marathon, Salamis, and Plataea. 

The simple and effective curriculum. The simplicity of the 
curriculum was one of its marked features. In a manner seldom 
witnessed in the world's educational history, the Greeks used 
their religion, Kterature, government, and the natural activities 
of young men to impart an education of wonderful effectiveness. 
The subjects we have valued so highly for training were to them 
unknown. They taught no arithmetic or grammar, no science, 
no drawing, no higher mathematics, and no foreign tongue. 
Music, the literature and religion of their own people, careful 
physical training, and instruction in the duties and practices of 
citizenship constituted the entire curriculum. 

It was an education by doing; not one of learning from books. 
That it was an attractive type of education there is abundant 
testimony by the Greeks themselves. We have not as yet come 
to value physical education as did the Greeks, nor are we nearly 
so successful in our moral education, despite the aid of the Chris- 
tian rehgion which they did not know. It was, to be sure, class 
education, and hmited to but a small fraction of the total popu- 
lation. In it girls had no share. There were many features of 



THE OLD GREEK EDUCATION 17 

Greek life, too, that are repugnant to modem conceptions. Yet, 
despite these Hmitations, the old education of Athens still stands 
as one of the most successful in its results of any system of edu- 
cation which has been evolved in the history of the world. Con- 
sidering its time and place in the history of the world and that it 
was a development for which there were nowhere any precedents, 
it represented a very wonderful evolution. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why are imaginative ability and many-sided natures such valuable 
characteristics for any people? 

2. Is the ability to make progressive changes, possessed so markedly by 
the Athenian Greeks, an important personal or racial characteristic? 
Why? _ , 

3. Are the Athenian characteristics, stated in the text of page 6, charac- 
teristics capable of development by training, or are they native, or 
both? 

4. How do you explain the Greek failure to achieve political unity? 

5. Would education for citizenship with us to-day possess the same defects 
as in ancient Greece? Why? Do we give an equivalent training? 

6. Which is the better attitude for a nation to assume toward the foreigner 
— the Greek, or the American? Why? 

7. Why does a state mihtary socialism, such as prevailed at Sparta, tend 
to produce a people of mediocre intellectual capacity? 

8. How do you account for the Athenian State leaving literary and musical 
education to private initiative, but supporting state gymnasia? 

9. Would the Athenian method of instruction have been possible had all 
children in the State been given an education? Why? 

10. How did the education of an Athenian girl differ from that of a girl in 
the early American colonies? 

11. Why did the Greek boy need three teachers, whereas the American boy 
is taught all and more by one primary teacher? 

12. Contrast the Greek method of instruction in music, and the purposes 
of the instruction, with our own. 

13. How could we incorporate into our school instruction sorne of the im- 
portant aspects of Greek instruction in music? 

14. What do you think of the contentions of Aristotle and Plato that the 
State should control school music as a means of securing sound moral 
instruction? 

15. Does the Greek idea that a harmonious personal development contrib- 
utes to moral worth appeal to you? Why? 

16. Contrast the Greek ideal as to athletic training with the conception of 
athletics held by an average American schoolboy. 

17. Contrast the education of a Greek boy at sixteen with that of an Ameri- 
can boy at the same age. 

18. Contrast the emphasis placed on expression as a method in teaching in 
the schools of Athens and of the United States. 

19. Do the needs of modern society and industrial life warrant the greater 
emphasis we place en learning from books, as opposed to the learning 
by doing of the Greeks? 

20. Compare the compulsory-school period of the Greeks with our own. 



i8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

If we were to add some form of compulsory military training, for all 
youths between eighteen and twenty, and as a preparedness measure, 
would we approach still more nearly the Greek requirements? 

21. Explain how the Athenian Greeks reconciled the idea of social service to 
the State with the idea of individual Hberty, through a form of education 
which developed personahty. Compare this with our American ideal. 

2 2. The Greek schoolboy had no long summer vacation, as do American 
children. Is there any special reason why we need it more than did 
they? 

23. Do we believe that virtue can be taught in the way the Hellenic peoples 
did? Do we carry such a behef into practice? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced : 

1. Plutarch: Ancient Education in Sparta. 

2. Plato: An Athenian Schoolboy's Life. 

3. Lucian: An Athenian Schoolboy's Day. 

4. Aristotle: Athenian Citizenship and the Ephebic Years. 

5. Freeman: Sparta and Athens compared. 

6. Thucydides: Athenian Education summarized. 

(For Supplemental References, see following chapter.) 



CHAPTER II 
LATER GREEK EDUCATION 
III. THE NEW GREEK EDUCATION 

Political events: The Golden Age of Greece. The Battle of 
Marathon (490 B.C.) has long been considered one of the "decisive 
battles of the world." Had the despotism of the East triumphed 
here, and in the subsequent campaign that ended in the defeat of 
the Persian fleet at Salamis (480 B.C.) and of the Persian army at 
Plataea (479 B.C.), the whole history of our western world would 
have been different. The result of the war with Persia was the 
triumph of this new western democratic civilization, prepared 
and schooled for great national emergencies by a severe but effec- 
tive training, over the uneducated hordes led to battle by the au- 
tocracy of the East. 

Marathon broke the spell of the Persian name and freed the 
more progressive Greeks to pursue their intellectual and political 
development. Above all it revealed the strength and power of the 
Athenians to themselves, and in the half-century following the most 
wonderful political, hterary, and artistic development the world 
had ever known ensued, and the highest products of Greek civili- 
zation were attained. Attica had braved everything for the com- 
mon cause of Greece, even to leaving Athens to be burned by the 
invader, and for the next fifty years she held the position of politi- 
cal as well as cultural preeminence among the Greek City-States. 
Athens now became the world center of wealth and refinement 
and the home of art and literature (R. 7), and her influence along 
cultural lines, due in part to her mastery of the sea and her grow- 
ing commerce, was now extended throughout the Mediterranean 
world. 

From 479 to 431 B.C. was the Golden Age of Greece, and " dur- 
ing this short period Athens gave birth to more great men — 
poets, artists, statesmen, and philosophers — than all the world 
beside had produced in any period of equal length." 

Transition from the old to the new. As early as 509 b.c. a new 
constitution had admitted all the free inhabitants of Attica to 
citizenship, and the result was a rapid increase in the prestige, 
property, and culture of Athens. Citizenship was now open to 



20 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the commercial classes, and no longer restricted to a small, prop- 
erly born, and properly educated class. Wealth now became im- 
portant in giving leisure to the citizen, and was no longer looked 
down upon as it had been in the earlier period. After the Pelo- 
ponnesian War the predominance of Attica among the Greek 
States, the growth of commerce, the constant interchange of em- 
bassies, the travel overseas of Athenian citizens, and the presence 
of many foreigners in the State all alike led to a tolerance of new 
ideas and a criticism of old ones which before had been unknown. 

Changes in the old education. A number of changes in the 
character of the old education were now gradually introduced. 
The rigid drill of the earlier period began to be replaced by an 
easier and a more pleasurable type of training. Gymnastics for 
personal enjoyment began to replace drill for the service of the 
State, and was much less rigid in type. The old authors, who had 
rendered important service in the education of youth, began to be 
replaced by more modern writers, with a distinct loss of the earlier 
religious and moral force. New musical instruments, giving a 
softer and more pleasurable effect, took the place of the seven- 
stringed lyre, and complicated music replaced the simple Doric 
airs of the earlier period. Education became much more indi- 
vidual, literary, and theoretical. Geometry and drawing were 
introduced as new studies. Grammar and rhetoric began to be 
studied, discussion was introduced, and a certain glibness of 
speech began to be prized. The citizen-cadet years, from sixteen 
to twenty, formerly devoted to rather rigorous physical training, 
were now changed to school work of an intellectual type. 

New teachers ; the Sophists. New teachers, known as Sophists, 
who professed to be able to train men for a political career, began 
to offer a more practical course designed to prepare boys for the 
newer type of state service. These in time drew many Ephebes 
into their private schools, where the chief studies were on the 
content, form, and practical use of the Greek language. Rhetoric 
and grammar before long became the master studies of this new 
period, as they were felt to prepare boys better for the new politi- 
cal and intellectual life of Hellas than did the older type of train- 
ing. In the schools of the Sophists boys now spent their time in 
forming phrases, choosing words, examining grammatical struc- 
ture, and learning how to secure rhetorical effect. Many of these 
new teachers made most extravagant claims for their instruction 
(R. 8) and drew much ridicule from the champions of the older 



LATER GREEK EDUCATION 21 

type of education, but within a century they had thoroughly es- 
tablished themselves, and had permanently changed the character 
of the earlier Greek education. 

By 350 B.C. we find that Greek school education had been 
differentiated into three divisions, as follows: 

1 Primary education, covering the years from seven or eight to 
' thirteen, and embracing reading, writing, arithmetic, and chant- 
ing. The teacher of this school came to be known as a gram- 

matist. . . . , . , 

2 Secondary education, covering the years from thirteen to sixteen, 
and embracing geometry, drawing, and a special music course. 
Later on some grammar and rhetoric were introduced into this 
school. The teacher of this school came to be known as a gram- 

3. Higher or university education, covering the years after sixteen. 
The flood of individualism. This period of artistic and intel- 
lectual brilliancy of Greece following the Peloponnesian War 
marked the beginning of the end of Greece poUtically. The war 
was a blow to the strength of Greece from which the different 
States never recovered. Greece was bled white by this needless 
civil strife. The tendencies toward individuaHsm in education 
were symptomatic of tendencies in all forms of social and political 
life. The philosophers — Xenophon, Plato, and Aristotle — 
proposed ideal remedies for the evils of the State, but in vam. 
The old ideal of citizenship died out. Service to the State be- 
came purely subordinate to personal pleasure and advancement. 
Irreverence and a scofi&ng attitude became ruling tendencies. 
Family moraHty decayed. The State in time became corrupt and 
nerveless. Finally, in 338 B.C., Philip of Macedon became master 
of Greece, and annexed it to the world empire which he and his 
son Alexander created. Still later, in 146 B.C., the new world 
power to the west, Rome, conquered Greece and made of it a 
Roman province. 

Though dead politically, there now occurred the unusual^ spec- 
tacle of "captive Greece taking captive her rude conqueror," and 
spreading Greek art, literature, philosophy, science, and Greek 
ideas throughout the Mediterranean world. It was the Greek 
higher leammg that now became predominant and exerted such 
great influence on the future of our world civilization. It remains 
now to trace briefly the development and spread of this higher 
learning, and to point out how thoroughly it modified the thinking 
of the future. 



22 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




Fig. 6 
Socrates (469-399 B.C.) 

(After a marble bust in the 
Vatican Gallery, at Rome) 



New schools; Socrates. In the beginning each Sophist teacher 
was a free lance, and taught what he would and in the manner 
he thought best. Many of them made extraordinary efforts to 
attract students and win popular approval 
and fees. Plato represents the Sophist 
Protagoras as saying, with reference to a 
youth ambitious for success in political 
life, "If he comes to me he will learn that 
which he comes to learn." At first the 
instruction was largely individual, but 
later classes were organized. Isocrates, 
who lived from 393 to 338 B.C., organized 
the instruction for the first time into a 
well-graded sequence of studies, with defi- 
nite aims and work (R. 8). He shifted 
the emphasis in instruction from train- 
ing for success in argumentation, to train- 
ing to think clearly and to express ideas 
properly. His pupils were unusually suc- 
cessful, and his school did much to add to the fame of Athens as 
an intellectual center. From his work sprang a large number of 
so-called Rhetorical Schools, much like our better private schools 
and academies, offering to those Ephebes who could afford to 
attend a very good preparation for participation in the public life 
of the period. 

In contrast with the Sophists, a series of schools of philosophy 
also arose in Athens. These in a way were the outgrowth of the 
work of Socrates. Accepting the Sophists' dictum that "man is 
the measure of all things," he tried to turn youths from the baser 
individualism of the Sophists of his day to the larger general 
truths which measure the life of a true man. In particular he 
tried to show that the greatest of all arts — the art of living a good 
life — called for correct individual thinking and a knowledge of 
the right. " Know thyself " was his great guiding principle. His 
emphasis was on the problems of everyday morahty. Frankly 
accepting the change from the old education as a change that 
could not be avoided, he sought to formulate a new basis for edu- 
cation in personal morality and virtue, and as a substitute for the 
old training for service to the State. He taught by conversation, 
engaging men in argument as he met them in the street, and show- 
ing to them their ignorance (R. 9). Even in Athens, where free 



LATER GREEK EDUCATION 23 

speech was enjoyed more than anywhere else in the world at that 
time, such a shrewd questioner would naturally make enemies, 
and in 399 B.C. at the age of seventy-one, he was condemned to 
death by the Athenian populace on the charge of impiety and cor- 
rupting the youth of Athens. 

Socrates' greatest disciple was a citizen of wealth by the name 
of Plato, who had abandoned a political career for the charms of 
philosophy, and to him we owe our chief information as to the 
work and aims of Socrates. In 386 B.C. he founded the Academy, 
where he passed almost forty years in lecturing and writing. His 
school, which formed a model for others, consisted of a union of 
teachers and students who possessed in common a chapel, library, 
lecture- rooms, and Hving- rooms. Philosophy, mathematics, and 
science were taught, and women as well as men were admitted. 

Other schools of importance in Athens were the Lyceum, 
founded in 335 B.C. by a foreign-bom pupil of Plato's by the name 
of Aristotle, who did a remarkable work in organizing the known 
knowledge of his time; the school of the Stoics, founded by Zeno 
in 308 B.C. ; and the school of the Epicureans, founded by Epicurus 
in 306 B.C. Each of these schools offered a philosophical solution 
of the problem of life, and Plato and Aristotle wrote treatises on 
education as well. Each school evolved into a form of religious 
brotherhood which perpetuated the organization after the death 
of the master. In time these became largely schools for expound- 
ing the philosophy of the founder. 

The University of Athens. Coincident with the founding of 
these schools and the poUtical events we have previously recorded, 
certain further changes in Athenian edu(^ion were taking place. 
The character of the changes in the education before the age of 
sixteen we have described. As a result in part of the development 
of the schools of the Sophists, which were in themselves only at- 
tempts to meet fundamental changes in Athenian life, the edu- 
cation of youths after sixteen tended to become literary, rather 
than physical and military. The Ephebic period of service (from 
eighteen to twenty) was at first reduced from two years to one, 
and after the Macedonian conquest, in 338 B.C., when there was 
no longer an Athenian State to serve or protect, the entire period 
of training was made optional. The Ephebic corps was now 
opened to foreigners, and in time became merely a fashionable 
semi-miHtary group. Instead of the military training, attendance 
at the lectures of the philosophical schools was now required, and 



24 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

attendance at the rhetorical schools was optional. Later the 
philosophical schools were granted public support by the Athe- 
nian Assembly, professorships were created over which the Assem- 
bly exercised supervision, the rhetorical and philosophical schools 
were gradually merged, the study years were extended from two to 
six, or seven, a form of university life as regards both students and 
professors was developed, and what has since been termed '^The 
University of Athens" was evolved. 

As Athens lost in political power her citizens turned their atten- 
tion to making their city a center of world learning. This may be 
said to have been accomplished by 200 B.C. Though Greece had 
long since become a Macedonian province, and was soon to pass 
under the control of Rome, the so-called University of Athens was 
widely known and much frequented for the next three hundred 
years, and continued in existence until finally closed, as a center 
of pagan thought, by the edict of the Roman- Christian Emperor, 
Justinian, in 529 a.d. Though reduced to the rank of a Roman 
provincial town, Athens long continued to be a city of letters and 
a center of philosophic and scientific instruction. 

Spread and influence of Greek higher education. Alexander 
the Great rendered a very important service in uniting the west- 
em Orient and the eastern Mediterranean into a common world 
empire, and in estabhshing therein a common language, literature, 
philosophy, a common interest, and a common body of scientific 
knowledge and law. It was his hope to create a new empire, in 
which the distinction between European and Asiatic should pass 
away. No less than seventy cities were established with a view 
to holding his empire together. These served to spread Hellenic 
culture. Greek schools, Greek theaters, Greek baths, and Greek 
institutions of every type were to be found in practically all of 
them, and the Greek tongue was heard in them all. With Alex- 
ander the Great the history of Greek life, culture, and learning 
merges into that of the history of the ancient world. Everywhere 
throughout the new empire Greek philosophers and scientists, 
architects and artists, merchants and colonists, followed behind 
the Macedonian armies, spreading Greek civilization and becom- 
ing the teachers of an enlarged worid. " Greek cities stretched 
from the Nile to the Indus, and dotted the shores of the Black and 
the Caspian seas. The Greek language, once the tongue of a 
petty people, grew to be a universal language of culture, spoken 
even by barbarian lips, and the art, the science, the literature, 



LATER GREEK EDUCATION 25 

the principles of politics and philosophy, developed in isolation 
by the Greek mind, henceforth became the heritage of many 
nations." Greek universities were established at Pergamum and 
Tarsus in Asia Minor; at Rhodes on the island of that name in 
the ^gean; and at the newly founded city of Alexandria in Egypt. 

Mingling of Orient and Occident at Alexandria. The most 
famous of all these Greek institutions, however, was the Univer- 
sity of Alexandria, which gradually sapped Athens as a center of 
learning and became the intellectual capital of the world. The 
greatest library of manuscripts the world had ever known was 
collected together here. It is said to have numbered over 
700,000 volumes. These included Greek, Jewish, Egyptian, and 
Oriental works. In connection with the Kbrary was the museum, 
where men of letters and investigators were supported at royal 
expense. These two constituted an institution so like a university 
that it has been given that name. Alexandria became not only a 
great center of learning, but, still more important, the chief min- 
gling place for Greek, Jew, Egyptian, Roman, and Oriental, and 
here Greek philosophy, Hebrew and Christian religion, and Ori- 
ental faith and philosophy met and mixed. It was this mingled 
civilization and culture, all tinged through and through with the 
Greek, with which the Romans came in contact as they pushed 
their conquering armies into the eastern Mediterranean. 

Alexandria sapped in turn. In 30 B.C. Alexandria, too, came 
under Roman rule and was, in turn, gradually sapped by Rome. 
Greek influence continued, but the interest became largely philo- 
sophical. Ultimately Alexandria became the seat of a metaphys- 
ical school of Christian theology, and the scene of bitter rehgious 
controversies. In 330 a.d., Constantinople was founded on the 
site of the earher Byzantium, and soon thereafter Greek scholars 
transferred their interest to it and made it a new center of Greek 
learning. There Greek science, literature, and philosophy were 
preserved for ten centuries, and later handed back to a Europe 
just awakening from the long intellectual night of the Middle 
Ages. In 640 A.D. Alexandria was taken by the Mohammedans, 
and the university ceased to exist. The great library was de- 
stroyed, furnishing, it is said,, ''fuel sufficient for four thousand 
pubhc baths for a period of six months," and Greek learning was 
extinguished in the western world. 

Our debt to Hellas. As a political power the Greek States left 
the world nothing of importance. As a people they were too in- 



26 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

dividualistic, and seemed to have a strange inability to unite for 
political purposes. To the new power slowly forming to the west- 
ward — Rome — was left the important task, which the Greek 
people were never able to accomphsh, of uniting civilization into 
one political whole. The world conquest that Greece made was 
intellectual. As a result, her contribution to civilization was 
artistic, literary, philosophical, and scientific, but not political. 
The Athenian Greeks were a highly artistic and imaginative 
rather than a practical people. They spent their energy on other 
matters than government and conquest. As a result the world 
will be forever indebted to them for an art and a Hterature of 
incomparable beauty and richness which still charms mankind ; a 
philosophy which deeply influenced the early Christian religion, 
and has ever since tinged the thinking of the western world; and 
for many important beginnings in scientific knowledge which were 
lost for ages to a world that had no interest in or use for science. 
So deeply has our whole western civilization been tinctured by 
Greek thought that one enthusiastic writer has exclaimed, — ■ 
"Except the blind forces of Nature, nothing 'moves in this world 
which is not Greek in its origin." (R. ii.) 

In education proper the old Athenian education offers us many 
lessons of importance that we of to-day may well heed. In the 
emphasis they placed on moral worth, education of the body as 
well as the mind, and moderation in all things, they were much 
ahead of us. Their schools became a type for the cities of the 
entire Mediterranean world, being found from the Black Sea south 
to the Persian Gulf and westward to Spain. When Rome became 
a world empire the Greek school system was adopted, and in modi- 
fied form became dominant in Rome and throughout the prov- 
inces, while the universities of the Greek cities for long furnished 
the highest form of education for ambitious Roman youths. In 
this way Greek influence was spread throughout the Mediter- 
ranean world. The higher learning of the Greeks, preserved first at 
Athens and Alexandria, and later at Constantinople, was finally 
handed back to the western world at the time of the ItaHan Revival 
of Learning, after Europe had in part recovered from the effects 
of the barbarian deluge which followed the downfall of Rome. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSIOF 

I. Try to picture what might have been the result for western civilization 
had the small and newly-developed democratic civilization of Greece 



LATER GREEK EDUCATION 27 

been crushed by the Persians at the time they overran the Greek 
peninsula. 

2. Do periods of great political, commercial, and intellectual expansion 
usually subject old systems of morality and education to severe strain? 

3. Why was the change in the type of Athenian education during the 
Ephebic years a natural and even a necessary one for the new Athens? 

4. Do you understand that the system of training before the Ephebic years 
was also seriously changed, or was the change largely a re-shaping and 
extension of the education of youths after sixteen? 

5. Were the Sophists a good addition to the Athenian instructing force, or 
not? Why? 

6. How may a State estabhsh a corrective for such a flood of individualism 
as overwhelmed Greece, and still allow individual educational initiative 
and progress? 

7. Do we as a nation face danger from the flood of individualism we have 
encouraged in the past? How is our problem like and unlike that of 
Athens after the Peloponnesian War? 

8. In what ways was the conquest of Alexander good for world civilization? 

9. Of what importance is it, in the history of our western civilization, that 
Greek thought had so thoroughly permeated the eastern Mediterranean 
world before Roman armies conquered the region? 

[Q. Picture for yourself the great intellectual advances of the Greeks by 
contrasting the tribal preparedness-type of education of the early Greek 
States and the learning possessed by the scholars of Alexandria. 

[I. Compare the spread of Greek language and knowledge throughout the 
eastern Mediterranean world, following the conquests of Alexander, 
with the spread of the English language and ideas as to government 
throughout the modern world. 



SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

7. Wilkins: Athens in the Time of Pericles. 

8. Isocrates: The Instruction of the Sophists. 

9. Xenophon: An Example of Socratic Teaching. 

10. Draper: The Schools of Alexandria. 

11. Butcher: What we Owe to Greece. 



SUPPLEMENTAL REFERENCES 

The most important references are indicated by an * 

* Bevan, J. O. University Life in Olden Time. 

* Butcher, S. H. Some Aspects of the Greek Genius. 

* Davidson, Thos. Aristotle, and Ancient Educational Ideals. 

* Freeman, K. J. Schools of Hellas. 

Gulick, C. B. The Life of the Ancient Greeks. 

* Kingsley, Chas. Alexandria and her Schools. 

Laurie, S. S. Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education. 

* Mahaffy, J. P. Old Greek Education. 

Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. i. 

Walden, John W. H. The Universities of Ancient Greece. 

Wilkins, A. S. National Education hi Greece in the Fourth Century, B.C. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 

I. THE ROMANS AND THEIR MISSION 

Development of the Roman State. About the time that the 
Hellenes, in the City-States of the Greek peninsula, had brought 
their civilization to its Golden Age, another branch of the great 
Aryan race, which had previously settled in the ItaHan peninsula, 
had begun the creation of a new civilization there which was 
destined to become extended and powerful. At the beginning of 




Fig. 7. The Early Peoples of Italy, and the Extension of the 
Roman Power 

In 509 B.C. Attica opened her citizenship to all free inhabitants, and half a century- 
later the Golden Age of Greece was in full swing. By 338 B.C. Greece's glory had 
departed. Philip of Macedon had become master, and its political freedom was 
over. By 264 B.C. the center of Greek life and thought had been transferred to 
Alexandria, and Rome's great expansion had begun. 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 



29 



recorded history we find a number of tribes of this branch of the 
Aryan race settled in different parts of Italy, as is shown in Fig- 
ure 7. Slowly, but gradually, the smallest of these divisions, the 
Latins, extended its rule over the other tribes, and finally over 
the Greek settlements to the south and the Gauls to the north, so 
that by 201 b.c. the entire Itahan peninsula had become subject 
to the City-State government at Rome. 

By a wise policy of tolerance, patience, concihation, and assim- 
ilation the Latins gradually became the masters of all Italy. Un- 
like the Greek City-States, Rome seemed to possess a natural, 
genius for the art of government. Upon the people she con- 
quered slie bestowed the great gift of Roman citizenship, and she 
attached them to her by granting local government to their towns 
and by interfering as little as 
possible with their local manners, 
speech, habits, and institutions. 
By founding colonies among them 
and by building excellent mihtary 
roads to them, she insured her 
rule, and by kindly and generous 
treatment she bound the different 
Italian peoples ever closer and 
closer to the central government at 
Rome. By a most wonderful un- 
derstanding of the psychology of 
other peoples, new in the world 
before the work of Rome, and not 

seen again until the work of the English in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, Rome gradually assimilated the peoples of the Italian 
peninsula and in time amalgamated them into a single Roman 
race. In speech, customs, manners, and finally in blood she 
Romanized the different tribes and brought them under her 
leadership. Later this same process was extended to Spain, Gaul, 
and even to far-off Britain. 

The great mission of Rome. Had Rome tried to impose her 
rule and her ways and her mode of thought on her subject people, 
and to reduce them to complete subjection to her, as the modern 
German and Austrian Empires, for example, tried to do with the 
peoples who came under their control, the Roman Empire could 
never have been created, and what would have saved civilization 
from complete destruction during the period of the barbarian 




Fig. 8 
The Principal Roman Roads 



30 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

invasions is hard to see. Instead, Rome treated her subjects as 
her friends, and not as conquered peoples; led them to see that 
their interests were identical with hers; gave them large local inde- 
pendence and freedom in government, under her strong control 
of general affairs; opened up her citizenship and the line of pro- 
motion in the State to her provincials; and won them to the 
peace and good order which she everywhere imposed by the ad- 
vantages she offered through a common language, common law, 
common coinage, common commercial arrangements, common 
state service, and the common treatment of all citizens of every 
race. In consequence, the provincial was wilHngly absorbed into 
the common Roman race — absorbed in dress, manners, religion, 
poHtical and legal institutions, family names, and, most impor- 
tant of all, in language. 

II. THE PERIOD OF HOME EDUCATION 

The early Romans and their training. In the early history of 
the Romans, there were no schools, and it was not until about 
300 B.C. that even primary schools began to develop. What edu- 
cation was needed was imparted in the home or in the field and in 
the camp, and was of a very simple type. Certain virtues were 
demanded — modesty, firmness, prudence, piety, courage, seri- 
ousness, and regard for duty — and these were instilled both by 
precept and example. Each home was a center of the religious 
hfe, and of civic virtue and authority. In it the father was a high 
priest, with power of life and death over wife and children. He 
alone conversed with the gods and prepared the sacrifices. The 
wife and mother, however, held a high place in the home and in 
the training of the children, the marriage tie being regarded as 
very sacred. She also occupied a respected position in society, 
and was complete mistress of the house (R. 17). 

The father trained the son for the practical duties of a man 
and a citizen ; the mother trained the daughter to become a good 
housekeeper, wife, and mother. Morahty, character, obedience 
to parents and to the State, and whole-hearted service were em- 
phasized. The boy's father taught him to read, write, and count. 
Stories of those who had done great deeds for the State were told, 
and martial songs were learned and sung. After 450 B.C. every 
boy had to learn the Laws of the Twelve Tables (R. 12), and be 
able to explain their meaning (R. 13). As the boy grew older 
he followed his father in the fields and in the public place and Hs- 
tened to the conversation of men. 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 31 

Education by doing. It was largely an education by doing, as 
was that of the old Greek period, though entirely different in 
character. Either by apprenticeship to the soldier, farmer, or 
statesman, or by participation in the activities of a citizen, was 
the training needed imparted. Its purpose was to produce good 
fathers, citizens, and soldiers. Its ideals were found in the real 
and practical needs of a small State, where the ability to care for 
one's self was a necessary virtue. To be healthy and strong, to 
reverence the gods and the institutions of the State, to obey his 
parents and the laws, to be proud of his family connections and his 
ancestors, to be brave and efhcient in war, to know how to farm 
or to manage a business, were the aims and ends of this early train- 
ing. It produced a nation of citizens who wilhngly subordinated 
themselves to the interests of the State, a nation of warriors who 
brought all Italy under their rule, a calculating, practical people 
who believed themselves destined to become the conquerors and 
rulers of the world, and a reserved and proud race, trained to 
govern and to do business, but not possessed of lofty ideals or 
large enthusiasms in life (Rs. 15, 16). 

III. THE TRANSITION TO SCHOOL EDUCATION 

Beginnings of school education. Up to about 300 B.C. educa- 
tion had been entirely in the home, and in the activities of the 
fields and the State. It was a period of personal valor and stern 
civic virtue, in a rather primitive type of society, as yet but Httle in 
contact with the outside world, and little need of any other type 
of training had been felt. Up to about 250 B.C., at least, Roman 
education remained substantially as it had been in the preceding 
centuries. Reading, writing, declamation, chanting, and the 
Laws of the Twelve Tables still constituted the subject-matter of 
instruction, and the old virtues continued to be emphasized. 

By the middle of the third century B.C. Rome had expanded its 
rule to include nearly all the Itahan peninsula (see Figure 7), 
and was transforming itself politically from a little rural City- 
State into an Empire, with large world relationships. A knowl- 
edge of Greek now came to be demanded both for diplomatic and 
for business reasons, and the need of a larger culture, to corre- 
spond with the increased importance of the State, began to be felt 
by the wealthier and better-educated classes. Greek scholars, 
brought in as captured slaves from the Greek colonies of southern 
Italy, soon began to be extensively employed as teachers and as 
secretaries. . 



32 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

About 233 B.C., Livius Andronicus, who had been brought to 
Rome as a slave when Tarentum, one of the Greek cities of south- 
ern Italy, was captured, and who later had obtained his freedom, 
made a translation of theOdyssey into Latin, and became a teacher 
of Latin and Greek at Rome. This had a wonderful effect in 
developing schools and a Hterary atmosphere at Rome. The 
Odyssey at once became the great school textbook, in time sup- 
planting the Twelve Tables, and literary and school education 
now rapidly developed. The Latin language became crystallized 
in form, and other Greek works were soon translated. The be- 
ginnings of a native Latin literature were now made. Greek 
higher schools were opened, many Greek teachers and slaves 
offered instruction, and the Hellenic scheme of culture, as it had 
previously developed in Attica, soon became the fashion at Rome. 

Changes in national ideals. The second century B.C. was even 
more a period of rapid change in all phases and aspects of Roman 
life. During this century Rome became a great world empire, 
and mistress of the whole Mediterranean world. Her ships 
plied the seas, her armies and governors ruled the land. The 
introduction of wealth, luxuries, and slaves from the new prov- 
inces, which followed their capture, soon had a very demoralizing 
influence upon the people. Private and public religion and moral- 
ity rapidly declined; religion came to be an empty ceremonial; 
divorce became common; wealth and influence ruled the State; 
slaves became very cheap and abundant, and were used for almost 
every type of service. From a land of farmers of small farms, 
sturdy and self-supporting, who lived simply, reared large fam- 
ilies, feared the gods, respected the State, and made an honest 
living, it became a land of great estates and wealthy men, and 
the self-respecting peasantry were transformed into soldiers for 
foreign wars, or joined the" rabble in the streets of Rome. Wealth 
became the great desideratum, and the great avenue to this was 
through the public service, either as army commanders and gov- 
ernors, or as public men who could sway the multitude and com- 
mand votes and influence. Manifestly the old type of education 
was not intended to meet such needs, and now in Rome, as pre- 
viously in Athens, a complete transformation in the system of 
training for the young took place. 

The Hellenization of Rome. The result was the Hellenization 
of the intellectual hfe of Rome, making complete the Helleniza- 
tion of the Mediterranean world. After the fall of Greece, in 146 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 



33 



B.C., a great influx of educated Greeks took place. So completely 
did the Greek educational system seem to meet the needs of the 
changed Roman State that at first the Greek schools were adopted 
bodily — Greek language, pedagogue, higher schools of rhetoric 
and philosophy, and all — and the schools were in reality Greek 
schools but slightly modified to meet the needs of Rome. Gym- 
nasia were erected, and wealthy Romans, as well as youths, began 
to spend their leisure in studying Greek and in trying to learn 
gymnastic exercises. 

In time the national pride and practical sense of the Romans 
led them to open so-called "culture schools" of their own, mod- 
eled after the Greek. The Latin language then replaced the 
Greek as the vehicle of instruction, though Greek was still studied 
extensively, and Rome began the development of a system of 
private-school instruction possessing some elements that were 
native to Roman life and Roman needs. 



IV. THE SCHOOL SYSTEM AS FINALLY ESTABLISHED 
The ludus, or primary school. The elementary school, known 
as the ludus, or ludus liter arum, the teacher of which was known 
as Si ludi magister, was the beginning or primary school of the 
scheme as finally evolved. This corresponded to the school of 
the Athenian grammatist, and like it the instruction consisted of 
reading, writing, and counting. These schools were open to both 
sexes, but were chiefly frequented by boys. They were entered 
at the age of seven, sometimes six, and covered the period up 
to twelve. Reading and 
writing were taught by 
much the same methods 
as in the Greek schools, 
and approximately the 
same writing materials 
were used. Something of 
the same difficulty was 
experienced also in mas- 
tering the reading art 
(R.22). Writing seems 
rather to have followed 

reading, and, as in the Greek schools, the pupils copied down from 
dictation and made their own books {dictata) . Literature received 
no such emphasis in the elementary schools of Rome as in those 




Fig. 9. Roman Writing-Materials 

Inkstand, pen, letter, box of manuscripts, wax 
tablets, stylus. 



34 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



of the Greeks, and the palcEstra of the Greeks was not reproduced 
at Rome. 

Due in part to the practical character of the Roman people, 
to the established habit of keeping careful household accounts, 
to the difficulties of their system of calculation, to the practice 
of finger reckoning, and to the vast commercial and financial 
interests that the Romans formed throughout the world which 
they conquered, arithmetic became a subject of fundamental 
importance in their schools, and much time was given to securing 
perfection in calculation and finger reckoning. Hence it occu- 
pied a place of large importance in the 
primary school. An abacus or counting- 
board was used, similar to the one shown 
in Figure lo, and Horace mentions a bag 
of stones {calculi) as a part of a school- 
boy's equipment. 

The ludi magister. The ludi magister at 
Rome held a position even less enviable 
than that held by the grammatist at 
Athens. "The starveling Greek," who 
was glad to barter his knowledge for the 
certainty of a good dinner, was sneered at 
by many Roman writers. Many slaves 
were engaged in this type of instruction, 
bringing in fees for their owners. It was 
not regarded as of importance that the 
teachers of these schools be of high grade. 
The establishment of and attendance at 
these primary schools was wholly volun- 
tary, and the children in them probably 
represented but a small percentage of those of school age in the 
total population. These schools became quite common in the 
Italian cities, and in time were found in the provincial cities of the 
Empire as well. They remained, however, entirely private-adven- 
ture undertakings, the State doing nothing toward encouraging 
their establishment, supervising the instruction in them,, or 
requiring attendance at them. 

The schools were held anywhere — in a portico, in a shed or 
booth in front of a house, in a store, or in a recessed corner shut 
in by curtains. A chair for the master, benches for the pupils, 
an outer room for cloaks and for the pedagogues to wait in, and 



• 


• 


• 


• 


• 


d 




M 


C 


X 


I 


c 


X 


1 


• 
• 
• 

• 


9 
• 

• 
• 


• 

• 
• 
• 


• 
• 
• 
• 


• 

• 


• 

• 
• 


• 




Fig. io. A Roman 

COUNTING-B CARD 

Pebbles were used, those 
nearest the numbered di- 
viding partition being 
counted. Each pebble above 
when moved downward 
counted five of those in the 
same division below. The 
board now shows 8,760,254. 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 35 

a bundle of rods (ferula) constituted the necessary equipment. 
The pupils brought with them boxes containing writing-materials, 
book-rolls, and reckoning-stones. Schools began early in the 
morning, pupils in winter going with lanterns to their tasks. 
There was much flogging of children, and in Martial we find 
an angry epigram which he addressed to a schoolmaster who dis- 
turbed his sleep (R. 22 a). 

The secondary schools. Secondary or Latin grammar schools, 
under a grammaticus, and covermg instruction from the age of 
twelve to sixteen, had become clearly differentiated from the 
primary schools under a ludi magister by the time of the death of 
Cato, 148 B.C. At first jthisjhigher instruction began in the form 
oLprivate tutors, probably in the homes of the wealthy, and 
Greek was the language taught. By the beginning of the first 
century B.C., however, Latin secondary schools began to arise, 
and in time these too spread to all the important cities of the 
Empire. Attendance at them was wholly voluntary, and was 
confined entirely to the children of the well-to-do classes. The 
teachers were Greeks, or Latins who had been trained by the 
Greeks. Each teacher taught as he wished, but the schools 
throughout the Empire came to be much the same in character. 
The course of study consisted chiefly of instruction in grammar 
and literature", the purpose being to secure such a mastery of the 
Latin language and Greek and Latin hteratures as might be most 
helpful in giving that broader culture now recognized as the mark 
of an educated man, and in preparing the young Roman to take 
up the life of an oratgr_and public ofi&cial (R. 24). Grammar, 
composition, elocution, ethics, history, mythology, and geography 
were all comprehended in the instruction in grammar and litera- 
ture in the secondary schools. A little music was added at times, 
to help the pupil intone his reading and declamation. A little 
geometry and astronomy were also included, for their practical 
applications. The athletic exercises of the Greeks were rejected, 
as contributing to immorality and being a waste of time and 
strength. In a sense these schools were finishing schools for 
Roman youths who went to any school at all, much as are our 
high schools of to-day for the great bulk of American children. 
The schools were better housed than those of the ludi, and the 
masters were of a better quality and received larger fees. ., Like 
the elementary schools, the State exercised no supervision or con- 
trol over these schools or the teachers or pupils in them. 



36 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The schools of rhetoric. Up to this point the schools estab- 
lished had been for practical and useful information (the primary 
schools) or cultural (the grammar or secondary schools). On top 
of these a higher and professional type of school was next devel- 
oped, to train youths in rhetoric and oratory, preparatory to the 
great professions of law and public life at Rome. These schools 
were direct descendants of the Greek rhetorical schools, which 
evolved from the schools of the Sophists. 

These schools, the teachers of which were known as rhetors, fur- 
nished a type of education representing a sort of collegiate educa- 
tion for the period. They were oratorical in purpose, because the 
orator had become the Roman ideal of a well-educated man 
(R. 24). During the life of the Republic the orator found many 
opportunities for the constructive use of his ability, and all 
young men ambitious to enter law or politics found the training 
of these schools a necessary prerequisite. They were attended 
for two or three years by boys over sixteen, but only the wealthier 
and more aristocratic families could afford to send their boys to 
them. 

University learning. Roman youths desiring still further 
training could now journey to the eastward and attend the Greek 
universities. A few did so, much as American students in the 
middle of the nineteenth century went to Germany for higher 
study. Athens and Rhodes were most favored. Brutus, Horace, 
and Cicero, among others, studied at Athens; Caesar, Cicero, and 
Cassius at Rhodes. Later Alexandria was in favor. In a library 
founded in the Temple of Peace by Vespasian (ruled 69 to 79 a.d.) 
the University at Rome had its origin, and in time this developed 
into an institution with professors in law, medicine, architecture, 
mathematics and mechanics, and grammar and rhetoric in both 
the Latin and Greek languages. In this many youths from pro- 
vincial cities came to study. The hues of instruction represented 
nothing, however, in the way of scientific investigation or creative 
thought; the instruction was formal and dogmatic, being largely 
a further elaboration of what had previously been well done by the 
Greeks. 

Nature of the educational system developed. Such was the 
educational system which was finally evolved to meet the new 
cultural needs of the Roman Empire. In all its foundation ele- 
ments it was Greek. Having borrowed — conquered one might 
almost say — Greek religion, philosophy, literature, and learning, 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 37 



• 
5 

5" 


>. 


(Greek 


Law 




Universities) 

University of 

Rome 
(Professor) 


Medicine 

Architecture 

Mathematics 

Grammar 

Rhetoric 


OJ 


u 


Schools of 


Grammar 


9 
CO 


C9 


Rhetoric 


Rhetoric 
Dialectic 




<5 


(Rhetor) 


Law 




® 


Latin 




S 


•0 


Grammar 


Grammar and 


i 
« 


fe 
S 


Schools 


Literature 






(Grammaticus) 








Ludi, or 






fV 


Primary 




e 


A 


Schools 


Reading 


.. 


1 




Writing 







(Ludi njagister) 


Reckoning 



the Romans naturally borrowed also the school system that had 
been evolved to impart this culture. Never before or since has any 
people adapted so completely 
to their own needs the system 
of educational training evolved 
by another. To the Greek 
basis some distinctively Ro- 
man elements were added to 
adapt it better to the peculiar 
needs of their own people, 
while on the other hand many 
of the finer Greek character- 
istics were omitted entirely. 
Having once adopted the 
Greek plan, the constructive 
Roman mind organized it into 
a system superior to the orig- 
inal, but in so doing formal- 
ized it more than the Greeks 
had ever done (R. 19). 

The schools reached but a 
small, selected class of youths, 
trained for only the political 
career, and cannot be consid- 
ered as having been general or as having educated any more than 
a small percentage of the future citizens of the State. Many of 
the important lines of activity in which the Romans engaged, and 
which to-day are regarded as monuments to their constructive 
skill and practical genius, such as architectural achievements, 
the building of roads and aqueducts, the many skilled trades, and 
the large commercial undertakings, these schools did nothing to 
prepare youths for. The State, unlike Athens, never required 
education of any one, did not make what was offered a prepara- 
tion for citizenship, and made no attempt to regulate either 
teachers or instruction until late in the history of the Empire. 
Education at Rome was from the first purely a private-adventure 
affair, most nearly analogous with us to instruction in music and 
dancing. Those who found the education offered of any value 
could take it and pay for it; those who did not could let it alone. 
A few did the former, the great mass of the Romans the latter. 
For the great slave class that developed at Rome there was, of 
course, no education at all. 



Fig. II. The Roman Voluntary 
Educational System, as finally 

EVOLVED 



38 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Results on Roman life and government. Still, out of this pri- 
vate and tuition system of schools many capable political leaders 
and executives came — men who exercised great influence on the 
history of the State, fought out her poHtical battles, organized 
and directed her government at home and in the provinces, and 
helped build up that great scheme of government and law and 
order which was Rome's most significant contribution to future 
civilization. It was in this direction, and in practical and con- 
structive work along engineering and architectural lines, that 
Rome excelled. The Roman genius for government and law and 
order and constructive undertakings must be classed, in impor- 
tance for the future of civilization in the world, along with the 
ability of Greece in hterature and philosophy and art. 

The conquest of the known world by this practical and con- 
structive people could not have otherwise than decisively in- 
fluenced the whole course of human history, and, coming at the 
time in world affairs that it did, the influence on all future civiliza- 
tion of the work of Rome has been profound. The great political 
fact which dominated all the Middle Ages, and shaped the religion 
and government and civilization of the time, was the fact that the 
Roman Empire had been and had done its work so well. 

V. ROME'S CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION 

Greece and Rome contrasted. The contrast between the 
Greeks and the Romans is marked in almost every particular. 
The Greeks were an imaginative, subjective, artistic, and ideahstic 
people, with little administrative ability and few practical ten- 
dencies. ,^The Romans, on the other hand, were an unimagina- 
tive, concrete, practical, and constructive nation. ) Greece made 
its great contribution to world civilization in literature and phil- 
osophy and arty Rome in law and order and government. The 
Greeks lived a life of aesthetic enjoyment of the beautiful in nature 
and art, and their basis for estimating the worth of a thing was 
intellectual and artistic ;'- to the Romans the aesthetic and the 
beautiful made little appeal, and their basis for estimating the 
worth of a thing was utilitarian. '^The Greeks worshiped ''the 
beautiful and the good," and tried to enjoy life rationally and 
nobly, while the Romans worshiped force and effectiveness, and 
lived by rule and authority. The Greeks thought in personal 
terms of government and virtue and happiness, while the Romans 
thought in general terms of law and duty, and their happiness 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 39 

was rather in present denial for future gain than in any immediate 
enjoyment. 

As a result the Romans developed no great scholarly or literary 
atmosphere, as the Greeks had done at Athens. They built up 
no great speculative philosophies, and framed no great theories 
of government. Even their Kterature was, in part, an imitation 
of the Greek, though possessing many elements of native strength 
and beauty. They were a people who knew how to accomplish 
results rather than to speculate about means and ends. Useful- 
ness and effectiveness were with them the criteria of the worth of 
any idea or project. They subdued and annexed an empire, they 
gave law and order to a primitive world, they civilized and Roman- 
ized barbarian tribes, they built roads connecting all parts of their 
Empire that were the best the world had ever known, their aque- 
ducts and bridges were wonders of engineering skill, their public 
buildings and monuments still excite admiration and envy, in 
many of the skilled trades they developed tools and processes of 
large future usefulness, and their agriculture was the best the 
world had known up to that time. They were strong where the 
Greeks were weak, and weak where the Greeks were strong. 

By reason of this difference the two peoples supplemented one 
another well in the work of laying the foundations upon which 
our modern civilization has been built. Greece created the 
intellectual and aesthetic ideals and the culture for our life, while 
Rome developed the political institutions under which ideals may 
be realized and culture may be enjoyed. From the Greeks and 
Hebrews our modern Hfe has drawn its great inspirations and its 
ideals for life, while from the Romans we have derived our ideals 
as to government and obedience to law. One may say that the 
Romans as a people specialized in government, law, order, and 
constructive practical undertakings, and bequeathed to posterity 
a wonderful inheritance in governmental forms, legal codes, com- 
mercial processes, and engineering undertakings, while the Greeks 
left to us a philosophy, literature, art, and a world culture which 
the civilized world will never cease to enjoy. The Greeks were an 
imaginative, impulsive, and a joyous people; the Romans sedate, 
severe, and superior to the Greeks in persistence and moral force. 
The Greeks were ever young ; the Romans were always grown and 
serious men. 

Rome's great contribution. Rome's great contribution, then, 
was along the lines just indicated. To this, the school system 



40 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

which became established in the Roman State contributed only 
indirectly and but Httle. The unification of the ancient wo rld 
into one Empire, with a common body of traditions, practices, 
coinage, speech, and law, which made the triumph of Christianity 
possible; the formulation of a body of law which barbarian tribes 
accepted, which was studied throughout the Middle Ages, which 
formed the basis of the legal system of the mediaeval Church, and 
which has largely influenced modern practice; the development 
of a language from which many modern tongues have been de- 
rived, and which has modified all western languages; and the 
perfection of an alphabet which has become the common property 
of all nations whose civilization has been derived from the Greek 
and Roman — these constitute the chief contributions of Rome 
to modern civilization. 

Of all the Roman contributions to modern civilization perhaps 
the one that most completely permeates all our modern life is their 
alphabet and speech. This alphabet they obtained from the 
Greek colonies in southern Italy, and the Greeks obtained it from 
the still earlier Phoenicians. It has become the common prop- 
erty of almost all the civilized world. In speech, the French, 
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian tongues go back directly to the 
Latin, and these are the tongues of Mexico and South America 
as well. The English language, which is spoken throughout a 
large part of the civilized world, and by two thirds of its inhabit- 
ants, has also received so many additions from Romanic sources 
that we to-day scarcely utter a sentence without using some word 
once used by the citizens of ancient Rome. 

Among the smaller but nevertheless important contributions 
which we owe to Rome, and which were passed on to mediaeval 
and modern Europe, should be mentioned certain practical 
knowledge in agriculture and the mechanic arts; many inventions 
and acquired skills in the arts and trades; an organized sea and 
land trade and commerce; cleared and improved lands, good 
houses, roads and bridges; great architectural and engineering 
remains, scattered all through the provinces; the beginnings of 
the transformation of the slave into the serf, from which the great 
body of freemen of modern Europe later were evolved; and certain 
educational conceptions and practices which later profoundly in- 
fluenced educational methods and procedure. How large these 
contributions were we shall appreciate better as we proceed with 
our history. 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 41 

The way paved for Christianity. It was the great civilizing and 
unifying work of the Roman State that paved the way for the 
next great contribution to the foundations of the structure of our 
modern civihzation — the contribution of Christianity. Had 
Italy never been consolidated; had the barbarian tribes to the 
north never been conquered and Romanized; had Spain and 
Africa and the eastern Mediterranean never known the rule of 
Rome; had the Latin language never become the speech of the 
then civilized peoples; had Roman armies never imposed law and 
order throughout an unruly world; had Roman governors and 
courts never established common rights and security; had Roman 
municipal government never come to be the common type in 
the cities of the provinces; had Roman schools in the provincial 
cities never trained the foreign citizen in Roman ways and to 
think Roman thoughts; had Rome never established free trade 
and intercourse throughout her Empire; had Rome never devel- 
oped processes and skills in agriculture and the creative arts; 
had there been no Roman roads and common coinage; and had 
Rome not done dozens of other important things to unify and 
civilize Europe and reduce it to law and order, it is hard to 
imagine the chaos that would have resulted when the Empire 
gave way to the barbarian hordes which finally overwhelmed 
it. Where we should have been to-day in the upward march 
of civilization, without the work of Rome, it is impossible 
to say. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Contrast the Romans as a colonizing power with the modern Germans. 
The English. The French. 

2. At what period in our national development did home education with 
us .occupy substantially the same place as it did in Rome before 300 B.C.? 
In what respects was the education given boys and girls similar? Dif- 
ferent? 

3. What was the most marked advance over the Greeks in the early Roman 
training? 

4. Contrast the education of the Athenian, Spartan, and Roman boy, 
during the early period in each State. 

5. To what extent does early Roman education indicate the importance of 
the parent and of study of biography in the education of the young? 

6. Was the change in character of the education of Roman youths, after 
the expansion of the Roman State and the establishment of world con- 
tacts, preventable, or was it a necessary evolution? Why? Have we 
ever experienced similar changes? 

7. As a State increases in importance and enlarges its world contacts, is a 
correspondingly longer training and enlarged culture necessary at home? 

8. What idea do you get as to the extent to which the Latinized Odyssey 



42 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was read from the fact that the Latin language was crystallized in form 
shortly after the translation was made? 
9. What does the rapid adoption of the Greek educational system, and the 
later evolution of a native educational system out of it, indicate as to 
the nature of Roman expansion? 

10. Was the introduction of the Greek pedagogue as a fashionable adjunct 
natural? Why? 

11. Why is a period of very rapid expansion in a State likely to be demoraliz- 
ing? How may the demorahzation incident to such expansion be antici- 
pated and minimized? 

12. Why does the coming of large landed estates introduce important social 
problems? Have we the beginnings of a social problem of this type? 
What correctives have we that Rome did not have? 

13. State the economic changes which hastened the introduction of a new 
type of higher training at Rome. 

14. Was the Hellenization of Rome which ensued a good thing? Why? 

15. How do you account for Rome not developing a state school system in 
the period of great national need and change, instead of leaving the 
matter to private initiative? Do you understand that any large percent- 
age of youths in the Roman State ever attended any school? 

16. Why do older people usually oppose changes in school work manifestly 
needed to meet changing national demands? 

17. Compare the difficulties met with in learning to read Greek and Latin. 
Either and EngHsh. 

18. How do you account for the much smaller emphasis on literature and 
music in the elementary instruction at Rome than at Athens? How for 
the much larger emphasis on formal grammar in the secondary schools 
at Rome? 

19. What subjects of study as we now know them were included in the 
Roman study of grammar and rhetoric? 

20. How do you explain the greater emphasis placed by the Romans on 
secondary education than on elementary education? 

21. What particular Roman need did the higher schools of oratory and 
rhetoric supply? 

22. What does the exclusive devotion of these schools to such studies indi- 
cate as to professional opportunities at Rome? 

23. How do you account for the continuance of these schools in favor, and 
for the aid and encouragement they received from the later Emperors, 
when the very nature of the Empire in large part destroyed the careers 
for which they trained? 

24. Compare Rome and the United States in their attitudes toward foreign- 
born peoples. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

12. The Laws of the Twelve Tables. 

13. Cicero: Importance of the Twelve Tables in Education. 

14. Schreiber: A Rom.an Farmer's Calendar. 

15. Polybius: The Roman Character. 

16. Mommsen: The Grave and Severe Character of the Earlier Romans. 

17. Epitaph: The Education of Girls. 

18. Marcus Aurelius: The Old Roman Education described. 

19. Tacitus: The Old and the New Education contrasted. 



EDUCATION AND WORK OF ROME 43 

20. Suetonius: Attempts to Prohibit the Introduction of Greek Higher 
Learning. 

(a) Decree of the Roman Senate, i6i B.C. 

(b) Decree of the Censor, 92 B.C. 

21. Vergil: Difficulty experienced in Learning to Read. 

22. Horace: The Education given by a Father. 

23. Martial: The Ludi Magister. 

(a) To the Master of a Noisy School. 

(b) To a Schoolmaster. 

24. Cicero: Oratory the Aim of Education. 

25. Quintilian: On Oratory. 

26. Constantine: Privileges granted to Physicians and Teachers. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Abbott, F. F. Society and Politics in Ancient Rome. 

* Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 

Anderson, L. F. "Some Facts regarding Vocational Education among 
the Greeks and Romans"; in School Review, vol. 20, pp. 191-201. 

* Clarke, Geo. Education of Children at Rome. 

* Dill, Sam'l. Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. 

* Laurie, S. S. Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education. 
Mahaffy, J. P. The Silver Age of the Greek World. 

Ross, W. F. "The Strength and Weakness of Roman Education"; in 

School and Society, vol. 6, pp. 457-63. 
Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. i. 
Thorndike, Lynn. History of Mediceval Europe. 
Westermann, W. L. Vocational Training in Antiquity; in School Review, 

vol. 22, pp. 601-10. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE RISE AND CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 

THE RISE AND VICTORY OF CHRISTIANITY 

Religions in the Roman world. As was stated in the preceding 
chapter (p. 30), the Roman state religion was an outgrowth of 
the religion of the home. Just as there had been a number of 
fireside deities, who were supposed to preside over the different 
activities of the home, so there were many state deities who were 
supposed to preside over the different activities of the State. In 
addition, the Romans exhibited toward the religions of all other 
peoples that same tolerance and wilhngness to borrow which they 
exhibited in so many other matters. Certain Greek deities were 
taken over and temples erected to them in Rome, and new deities, 
to guard over such functions as health, fortune, peace, concord, 
sowing, reaping, etc., were established. Extreme tolerance also 
was shown toward the special religions of other peoples who had 
been brought within the Empire, and certain oriental divinities 
had even been admitted and given their place in Rome. 

Like many other features of Roman life, their religion was 
essentially of a practical nature, dealing with the affairs of every- 
day life, and having little or no relation to personal morality. 
It promised no rewards or punishments or hopes for a future life, 
but rather, by uniting all citizens in a common reverence and fear 
of certain deities, helped to unify the Empire and hold it together. 
After the death of Augustus (14 a.d.), the Roman Senate deified 
the Emperor and enrolled his name among the gods, and Emperor 
worship was added to their ceremonies. This naturally spread 
rapidly throughout the Empire, tended to unite all classes in 
allegiance to the central government at Rome, and seemed to form 
the basis for a universal religion for a universal empire. 

Feeling of need for something more. As an educated class 
arose in Rome, this mixture of diverse divinities failed to satisfy; 
the Roman religion, made up as it was of state and parental duties 
and precautions, lost with them its force; and the religious cere- 
monies of the home and the State lost for them their meaning. 
The mechanical repetition of prayers and sacrifices made no 
appeal to the emotions or to the moral nature of individuals, and 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 45 

ofifered no spiritual joy or consolation as to a life beyond. The 
educated Greeks before had had this same feeling, and had in- 
dulged in much speculation as to the moral nature of man. Many 
educated Romans now turned to the Greek philosophers for some 
more philosophical explanation of the great mystery of life and 
death. 

Where this new religion arose. Far to the eastern end of the 
Mediterranean there had long lived a branch of the Semitic race, 
which had developed a national character and made a contribu- 
tion of first importance to the religious thought of the world. 
These were the Hebrew people who, leaving Egypt about 1500 
B.C., in the Exodus, had come to inhabit the land of Canaan, 
south of Phoenicia and east and north of Egypt. From a wander- 
ing, pastoral people they had gradually changed to a settled, 
agricultural people, and had begun the development of a regular 
State. Unwilling, however, to bear the burdens of a political 
State, and objecting to taxation, a standing army, and forced 
labor for the State, the nationality which promised at one time 
fell to pieces, and the land was overrun by hostile neighbors and 
the people put under the yoke. After a sad and tempestuous 
history, which culminated in the destruction of Jerusalem by the 
Romans in 70 a.d., the inhabitants were sold into slavery and 
dispersed throughout the Roman Empire. 

These people developed no great State, and made no contribu- 
tions to government or science or art. Their contribution was 
along rehgious lines, and so magnificent and uplifting is their 
religious literature that it is certain to last for all time. Alone 
among all eastern people they early evolved the idea of one 
omnipotent God. The religion that they developed declared 
man to be the child of God, erected personal morality and service 
to God as the rule of Hfe, and asserted a life beyond the grave. 
It was about these ideas that the whole energy of the people 
concentrated, and religion became the central thought of their 
lives. This religion, unlike the other religions of the Mediter- 
ranean world, emphasized duty to God, service, personal moral- 
ity, chastity, honesty, and truth as its essential elements. The 
Law of Moses became the law of the land. Woman was elevated 
to a new place in the life of the ancient world. Children became 
sacred in the eyes of the people. Their literary contribution, the 
Old Testament — written by a series of patriarchs, lawgivers, 
prophets, and priests — pictures, often in sublime language, the 



46 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

various migrations, deliverances, calamities, religious hopes, aspi- 
rations, and experiences of this Chosen People. 

The unity of this people. Just before their country was over- 
run and they were carried captive to Babylon, in 588 B.C., the 
Pentateuch had been reduced to writing and made an authori- 
tative code of laws for the people. This served as a bond of 
union among them during the exile, and after their return to 
Palestine, in 538 B.C., the study and observance of this law became 
the most important duty of their lives. The synagogue was 
established in every village for its exposition, where twice on 
every Sabbath day the people were to gather to hear the law ex- 
pounded. A race of Scribes, or scripture scholars, also arose to 
teach the law, as well as means for educating additional scribes. 
They were to interpret the law, and to apply it to the daily lives 
of the people. 

Realizing, after the return from captivity, that the future 
existence of the Hebrew people would depend, not upon their 
military strength, but upon their moral unity, and that this must 
be based upon the careful training of each child in the traditions 
of his fathers, the leaders of the people began the evolution of a 
religious school system to meet the national need. Realizing, 
too, that parents could not be depended upon in all cases to pro- 
vide this instruction, the leaders provided it and made it com- 
pulsory. Great open-air Bible classes were organized at first, 
and these were gradually extended to all the villages of the coun- 
try. Elementary schools were developed later and attached to 
the synagogues, and finally, in 64 a.d., the high priest, Joshua ben 
Gamala, ordered the establishment of an elementary school in 
every village, made attendance compulsory for all male children, 
and provided for a combined type of religious and household 
instruction at home for all girls. Reading, writing, counting, the 
history of the Chosen People, the poetry of the Psalms, the Law 
of the Pentateuch, and a part of the Talmud constituted the 
subject-matter of instruction. The instruction was largely oral, 
and learning by heart was the common teaching plan. The child 
was taught the Law of his fathers, trained to make holiness a rule 
of his life and to subordinate his will to that of the one God, and 
commanded to revere his teachers (R. 27) and uphold the tradi- 
tions of his people. 

After the destruction of Jerusalem (70 a.d.) and the scatter- 
ment of the people, the school instruction was naturally more or 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 47 

less disrupted, but in one way or another the Hebrew people have 
ever since managed to keep up the training of rabbis and the 
instruction of the young in the Law and the traditions of their 
people, and as a consequence of this instruction we have to-day 
the interesting result of a homogeneous people who, for over 
eighteen centuries, have had no national existence, and who have 
been scattered and persecuted as have no other people. History 
offers us no better example of the salvation of a people by means 
of the compulsory education of all. 

The new Christian faith. It was into this Hebrew race that 
Jesus was born, and there he lived, learned, taught, made his 
disciples, and was crucified. Building on the old Hebrew moral 
law and the importance of the personal life, Jesus made his appeal 
to the individual, and sought the moral regeneration of society 
through the moral regeneration of individual men and women. 
This idea of individuaHty and of personal souls worth saving was 
a new idea in a world where the submergence of the individual 
in the State had ever3rwhere up to that time been the rule. Even 
the Hebrews, in their great desire to perpetuate their race and 
faith, had suppressed and absorbed the individual in their religious 
State. The teachings of Jesus, on the other hand, with their 
emphasis on charity, sympathy, self-sacrifice, and the brother- 
hood of all men, tended to obliterate nationality, while the 
emphasis they gave to the future life, for which life here was but 
a preparation, tended to subordinate the interests of the State 
and withdraw the concern of men from worldly affairs. In a 
series of simple sermons, Jesus set forth the basis of this new faith 
which he, and after him his disciples, offered to the world. 

The challenge of Christianity. Into a Roman world that had 
already passed the zenith of its greatness came this new Christian 
faith, challenging almost everything for which the Roman world 
had stood. In place of Roman citizenship and service to the 
State as the purpose of life, the Christians set up the importance 
of the life to come. Instead of pleasure and happiness and the 
satisfaction of the senses as personal ends, the Christians preached 
denial of all these things for the greater joy of a future Hfe. In 
a society built on a huge basis of slavery and filled with social 
classes, the Christians proclaimed the equality of all men before 
God. To a nation in which family life had become corrupt, 
infidelity and divorce common, and infanticide a prevailing prac- 
tice, the Christians proclaimed the sacredness of the marriage tie 



48 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION' 

and the family life, and the exposure of infants as simple murder. 
In place of the subjection of the individual to the State, the 
Christians demanded the subjection of the individual only to God. 
In place of a union of State and religion, the Christians demanded 
the complete separation of the two and the subordination of the 
State to the Church. Unlike all other religions that Rome had 
absorbed, the Christians refused to be accepted on any other 
than exclusive terms. The worship of all other gods the Chris- 
tians held to be sinful idol-worship, a deadly sin in the eyes of God, 
and they were willing to give up their lives rather than perform 
the simplest rite of what they termed pagan worship (R. 28). To 
the deified Emperor the Christians naturally could not bend the 
knee (Rs. 30 b, 31 a-b, 34). 

The victory of Christianity. By the close of the first century 
there were Christian churches throughout most of Judea and 
Asia Minor, and in parts of Greece and Macedonia. During the 
second century other churches were established in Asia Minor, 
in Greece, and along the Black Sea, and at a few places in Italy 
and France ; and before four centuries had elapsed from the cruci- 
fixion Christian churches had been established throughout almost 
all the Roman world. The unity in government that Rome had 
everywhere estabhshed; the Roman peace {pax Romano) that 
Rome had everywhere imposed; the spread of the Greek and Latin 
languages and ideas throughout the Mediterranean world; the 
right of freedom of travel and speech enjoyed by a Roman citizen, 
and of which Saint Paul and others on their travels took advan- 
tage; the scatterment of Jews throughout the Empire, after the 
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d. — all these elements also 
helped. 

That Christianity made its headway unmolested must not be 
supposed. While at first the tendency of educated Romans and 
of the government was to ignore or tolerate it, its challenge was so 
direct and provocative that this attitude could not long continue. 
In the first century the Christians had been largely ignored. In 
the second, in some places, they were punished. In the third 
century, impelled by the calamities of the State and the urging 
of those who would restore the national religion to its earlier 
position, the Emperors were gradually driven to a series of heavy 
persecutions of the sect (R. 30 a). But it had now become too 
late. The blood of the martyrs proved to be the seed of the Church 
(R. 35). The last great persecution under the Emperor Diocle- 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 49 

tian, in 303 (R. 33), ended in virtual failure. In 311 the Em- 
peror Galerius placed Christianity on a plane of equality with 
other forms of worship (R. 36). In 313 Constantine made it in 
part the official religion of the State, and ordered freedom of wor- 
ship for all. He and succeeding Emperors gradually extended to 
the Christian clergy a long Kst of important privileges (R. 38) 
and exemptions, analogous to those formerly enjoyed by the 
teachers of rhetoric under the Empire (R. 26), and likewise be- 
gan the policy, so liberally followed later, of endowing the Church. 
In 391 the Emperor Theodosius forbade all pagan worship, thus 
making the victory of Christianity complete. In less than four 
centuries from the birth of its founder the Christian faith had 
won control of the great Empire in which it originated. In 529 
the Emperor Justinian ordered the closing of all pagan schools, 
and the University of Athens, which had remained the center of 
pagan thought after the success of Christianity, closed its doors. 
The victory was now complete. 

The contribution of Christianity. We have now before us the 
third great contribution upon which our modern civilization has 
been built. To the great contributions of Greece and Rome, 
which we have previously studied, there now was added, and 
added at a most opportune time, the contribution of Christianity. 
In taking the Jewish idea of one God and freeing it from the nar- 
row tribal limitations to which it had before been subject, Chris- 
tianity made possible its general acceptance, first in the Roman 
world, and later in the Mohammedan world. With this was 
introduced the doctrine of the fatherhood of God and his love for 
man, the equality before God of all men and of the two sexes, and 
the sacredness of each individual in the eyes of the Father. An 
entirely new conception of the individual was proclaimed to the 
world, and an entirely new ethical code was promulgated. The 
duty of all to make their lives conform to these new conceptions 
was asserted. These ideas imparted to ancient society a new 
hopefulness and a new energy which were not only of great 
importance in dealing with the downfall of civilization and the 
deluge of barbarism which were impending, but which have been 
of prime importance during all succeeding centuries. In time 
the church organization which was developed gradually ab- 
sorbed all other forms of government, and became virtually the 
State during the long period of darkness known as the Middle 
Ages. 



50 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

It remains now to sketch briefly how the Church organized 
itself and became powerful enough to perform its great task dur- 
ing the Middle Ages, what educational agencies it developed, and 
to what extent these were useful. 

II. EDUCATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION OF 
THE EARLY CHURCH 

Schooling of the early Church; catechumenal instruction. The 

early churches were bound together by no formal bond of union, 
and felt Httle need for such. It was the belief of many that 
Christ would soon return and the world would end, hence there 
was little necessity for organization. There was also almost no 
system of belief. An acknowledgment of God as the Father, a 
repentance for past sins, a godly life, and a desire to be saved were 
about all that was expected of any one. The chief concern was 
the moral regeneration of society through the moral regeneration 

- of converts. To accomplish this, in face of the practices of 
Roman society, a process of instruction and a period of probation 
for those wishing to join the faith soon became necessary. Jews, 
pagans, and the children of believers were thereafter alike sub- 
jected to this before full acceptance into the Church. At stated 
times during the week the probationers met for instruction in 
morahty and in the psalmody of the Church (R. 39). These two 
subjects constituted almost the entire instruction, the period 
of probation covering two or three years. The teachers were 
merely the older and abler members of the congregation. This 
personal instruction became common everywhere in the early 
Church, and the training was known as catechumenal, that is, 
• rudimentary, instruction. 

Catechetical schools. After Christianity had begun to make 

y converts among the more serious-minded and better-educated 
citizens of the Roman Empire, the need for more than rudimen- 
tary instruction in the principles of the church life began to be 
felt. Especially was this the case in the places where Christian 
workers came in contact with the best scholars of the Hellenic 
learning, and particularly at Alexandria, Athens, and the cities 
of Asia Minor. The speculative Greek would not be satisfied 
with the simple, unorganized faith of the early Christians. He 
wanted to understand it as a system of thought, and asked many 
questions that were hard to answer. To meet the critical inquiry 
of learned Greeks, it became desirable that the clergy of the 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 51 

Church, in the East at least, should be equipped with a training 
similar to that of their critics. As a result there was finally 
evolved, first at Alexandria, and later at other places in the 
Empire, training schools for the leaders of the Church, These 
came to be known as catechetical schools, from their oral ques- 
tioning method of instruction, and this term was later applied to 
elementary religious instruction (whence catechism) throughout 
western Europe. 

Rejection of pagan learning in the West. In the West, where 
the leaders of the Church came from the less philosophic and 
more practical Roman stock, and where the contact with a deca- 
dent society wakened a greater reaction, the tendency was to 
reject the Hellenic learning, and to depend more upon emotional 
faith and the enforcement of a moral Hfe. By the close of the 
third century the hostihty to the pagan schools and to the Hel- 
lenic learning had here become pronounced (R. 41). 

As a result Hellenic learning declined rapidly in importance in 
the West as the Church attained supremacy, and finally, in 401, 
the Council of Carthage, largely at the instigation of Saint Augus- 
tine, forbade the clergy to read any pagan author. In time 
Greek learning largely died out in the West, and was for a time 
almost entirely lost. Even the Greek language was forgotten, and 
was not known again in the West for nearly a thousand years. 

The Church perfects a strong organization. As was previously 
stated (p. 50), but little need was felt during the first two centu- 
ries for a system of belief or church government. As the expected 
return of Christ did not take place, and as the need for a formula- 
tion of belief and a system of government began to be felt, the 
next step was the development of these features. The system- 
of belief and the ceremonials of worship finally evolved are more 
the products of Greek thought and practices of the East, while 
the form of organization and government is derived more from 
Roman sources. In the second century the Old Testament was 
translated into Greek at Alexandria, and the ''Apostles' Creed" 
was formulated. During the third century the writings deemed 
sacred were organized into the New Testament, also in Greek. 
In 325 the first General Council of the Church was held at Nicaea, 
in Asia Minor. It formulated the Nicene Creed (R. 42), and 
twenty canons or laws for the government of the Church. A 
second General Council, held at Constantinople in 381, revised 
the Nicene Creed and adopted additional canons. 



52 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




The great organizing genius of the western branch of the 
Church was Saint Augustine (354-430). He 
gave to the Western or Latin Church, then be- 
ginning to take on its separate existence, the 
body of doctrine needed to enable it to put 
into shape the things for which it stood. The 
system of theology evolved before the separation 
of the eastern and western branches of the Church 
was not so finished and so finely speculative as 
that of the Greek branch, but was more prac- 
tical, more clearly legal, and more systematically 
organized. 

The influence of Rome was strong also in the 
organization of the system of government finally 
adopted for the Church. There being no other 
model, the Roman governmental system was 
copied. The bishop of a city corresponded to the 
Roman municipal officials; the archbishop of a 
territory to the governor of a province; and the 
patriarch to the ruler of a division of the Em- 
pire. As Rome had been a universal Empire, 
and as the city of Rome had been the chief gov- 
erning city, the idea of a universal Church was natural and the 
supremacy of the Bishop of Rome was gradually asserted and 
determined. 

A State within a State. There Vv^as thus developed in the West, 
as it were a State within a State. That is, within the Roman 
Empire, with its Emperor, provincial governors, and municipal 
officials, governing the people and drawing their power from the 
Roman Senate and imperial authority, there was also gradually 
developed another State, consisting of those who had accepted 
the Christian faith, and who rendered their chief allegiance, 
through priest, bishop, and archbishop, to a central head of the 
Church who owed allegiance to no earthly ruler. That Christian- 
ity, viewed from the governmental point of view, was a serious 
element of weakness in the Roman State and helped its downfall, 
there can be no question. In the eastern part of the Empire the 
Church was always much more closely identified with the State. 
Fortunately for civilization, before the Roman Empire had fallen 
and the impending barbarian deluge had descended, the Christian 
Church had succeeded in formulating a unifying belief and a form 



Fig. 12. 
A Bishop 

Seventh Century 

(Santo Venanzio, 

Rome) 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 53 

of government capable of commanding respect and of enforcing 
authority, and was fast taking over the power of the State itself. 

The cathedral or episcopal schools. The first churches through- 
out the Empire were in the cities, and made their early converts 
there. Gradually these important cities evolved into the resi- 
dences of a supervising priest or bishop, the- territory became 
known as a bishopric, and the church as a cathedral church. In 
time, also, some of the outlying territory was organized into par- 
ishes, and churches were established in these. These were made 
tributary to and placed under the direction of the bishop of the 
large central city. To supply clergy for these outlying parishes 
came to be one of the functions of the bishop, and, to insure prop- 
erly trained clergy and to provide for promotions in the clerical 
ranks, schools of a rudimentary type were established in connec- 
tion with the cathedral churches. These came to be known as 
cathedral, or episcopal schools. At first they were probably under 
the immediate charge of the bishop, but later, as his functions 
increased, the school was placed under a special teacher, known 
as a Scholasticus, or Magister Scholarum, who directed the cathe- 
dral school, assisted the bishop, and trained the future clergy. 
As the pagan secondary schools died out, these cathedral schools, 
together with the monas.tic schools which were later founded, 
gradually replaced the pagan schools as the important educational 
institutions of the western world. In these two types of schools 
the religious leaders of the early Middle Ages were trained. 

The monastic organization. In the early days of Christianity, 
it will be remembered (p. 48), the Christian convert held himself 
apart from the wicked world all about him, and had little to do 
with the society or the government of his time. He regarded the 
Church as having no relationship to the State. As the Church 
grew stronger, however, and became a State within a State, the 
Christian took a larger and larger part in the world around him, 
and in time came to be distinguished from other men by his pro- 
fession of the Christian religion rather than by any other mark. 
Many of the early bishops were men of great political sagacity, 
fully capable of realizing to the full the political opportunities, 
afforded by their position, to strengthen the power of the Church. 
It was the work of men of this type that created the temporal 
power of the Church, and made of it an institution capable of 
commanding respect and enforcing its decisions. 

To some of the early Christians this life did not appeal. To 



54 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

them holiness was associated with a complete withdrawal from 
contact with this sinful world and all its activities. Some betook 
themselves to the desert, others to the forests or mountains, and 
others shut themselves up alone that they might be undisturbed 
in their religious meditations. To such devoted souls monasti- 
cism, a scheme of Hving brought into the Christian world from 
the East, made a strong appeal. It provided that such men 
should live together in brotherho ^ds, renouncing the world, taking 
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and devoting their 
lives to hard labor and the mortification of the flesh that the soul 
might be exalted and made beautiful. The members lived alone 
in individual cells, but came together for meals, prayer, and 
religious service. 

As early as 330 a monastery had been organized on the island 
of Tebernas, in the Nile. About 350 Saint Basil introduced mo- 
nasticism into Asia Minor, where it flourished greatly. In 370 the 
Basilian order was founded. The monastic idea was soon trans- 
ferred to the West, a monastery being established at Rome prob- 
ably as early as 340. The monastery of Saint Victor, at Mar- 
seilles, was founded by Cassian in 404, and this type of monastery 
and monastic rule was introduced into Gaul, about 415. The 
monastery of Lerins (ofl Cannes, in southern France) was estab- 
lished in 405. During the fifth century a rapid extension of mo- 
nastic foundations took place in western Europe, particularly along 
the valleys of the Rhone and the Loire in Gaul. In 529 Saint 
Benedict, a Roman of wealth who fled from the corruption of his 
city, founded the monastery of Monte Cassino, south of Rome, 
and established a form of government, or rule of daily life, which 
was gradually adopted by nearly all the monasteries of the West. 
In time Europe came to be dotted with thousands of these estab- 
lishments, many of which were large and expensive institutions 
both to found and to maintain. By the time the barbarian inva- 
sions were in full swing monasticism had become an established 
institution of the Christian Church. Nunneries for women also 
were established early. 

Monastic schools. Poverty, chastity, obedience, labor, and 
religious devotion were the essential features of a monastic life. 
The Rule of Saint Benedict (R. 43) organized in a practical wa^ 
the efforts of those who took the vows. In a series of seventy- 
three rules which he laid down, covering all phases of monastii 
life, the most important from the standpoint of posterity was tb 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 55 

forty-eighth, prescribing at least seven hours of daily labor and two 
hours of reading "for all able to bear the load." From that part 
of the rule requiring regular manual labor the monks became the 
most expert farmers and craftsmen of the early Middle Ages, while 
to the requirement of daily reading we owe in large part the devel- 
opment of the school and the preservation of learning in the West 
during the long intellectual night of the mediaeval period (R. 44). 

Into these monastic institutions the oblati, that is, those who 
wished to become monks, were received as early as the age of 
twelve, and occasionally earlier (R. 53 a) . The final vows (R. 53 b) 
could not be taken until eighteen, so during this period the novice 
was taught to work and to read and write, given instruction in 
church music, and taught to calculate the church festivals and 
to do simple reckoning. In time some condensed and carefully 
edited compendium of the elements of classical learning was also 
studied, and still later a more elaborate type of instruction was 
developed in some of the monasteries. This, however, belongs 
to a later division of this history, and further description of 
church and monastic education will be deferred until we study 
the intellectual life of the Middle Ages. 

The education of girls. Aside from the general instruction in 
the practices of the church and home instruction in the work of a 
woman, there was but little provision made for the education of 
girls not desiring to join a convent or nunnery. A few, however, 
obtained a limited amount of intellectual training. The letter of 
Saint Jerome to the Roman lady Paula (R. 45), regarding the 
education of her daughter, is a very important document in the 
history of early Christian education for girls. Dating from 403, it 
outlines the type of training a young girl should be given who 
was to be properly educated in Christian faith and properly con- 
secrated to God. What he outlined was education for nunneries, 
a number of which had been founded in the East and a few in the 
West. In the West these institutions later experienced an exten- 
sive development, and offered the chief opportunity for any intel- 
lectual education for women during the whole of the Middle Ages. 

III. WHAT THE MIDDLE AGES STARTED WITH 

What the Church brought to the Middle Ages. From a small 
and purely spiritual organization, devoting its energies to exhorta- 
tion and to the moral regeneration of mankind, and without creed 
or form of government, as the Christian Church was in the first 



56 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

two centuries of its development, we have traced the organization 
of a body of doctrine, the perfection of a strong system of church 
government, and the development of a very limited educational 
system designed merely to train leaders for its service. We have 
also shown how it added to its early ecclesiastical organization a 
strong governmental organization, became a State within a State, 
and gradually came to direct the State itself. It was thus ready, 
when the virtual separation of the Roman Empire into an eastern 
and western division took place, in 395, and when the western 
division finally fell before the barbarian onslaughts, to take up 
in a way the work of the State, force the barbarian hordes to 
acknowledge its power, and begin the process of civilizing these 
new tribes and building up once more a civilization in the western 
world. In addition to its spiritual and political power, the Church 
also had developed, in its catechumenal instruction and in the 
cathedral and monastic schools, a very meager form of an educa- 
tional system for the training of its future leaders and servants. 
A great change had now taken place in the nature of education as 
a preparation for life, and intellectual education, in the sense that 
it was known and understood in Greece and Rome, was not to be 
known again in the western world for almost a thousand years. 
The distinguishing characteristic of the centuries which follow, 
up to the Revival of Learning, are, first, a struggle against very 
adverse odds to prevent civilization from disappearing entirely, 
and later a struggle to build up new foundations upon which world 
civilization might begin once more where it had left off in Greece 
and Rome. 

The three great contributions from the ancient world. Thus, 
before the Middle Ages began, the three great contributions of 
the ancient world which were to form the foundations of our 
future western civilization had been made. 'Greece gave the 
world an art and a philosophy and a hterature of great charm and 
beauty, the most advanced intellectual and aesthetic ideas that 
civilization has inherited, and developed an educational system 
of wonderful effectiveness — one that in its higher development 
in time took captive the entire Mediterranean world and pro- 
foundly modified all later thinking. ^Rome was the organizing 
and legal genius of the ancient world, as Greece was the Kterary 
and philosophical. To Rome we are especially indebted for our 
conceptions of law, order, and government, and for the ability 
to make practical and carry into effect the ideals of other peoples. ^ 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 57 

\£To the Hebrews we are indebted for the world's loftiest concep- 
tions of God, religious faith, and moral responsibility, and to 
Christianity and the Church we are indebted for making these 
ideas universal in the Roman Empire and forcing them on a 
barbaric world. 

All these great foundations of our western civilization have not 
come down to us directly. The hostility to pagan learning that 
developed on the part of the Latin Fathers; the establishment of 
an eastern capital for the Empire at Constantinople, in 328; the 
virtual division of the Empire into an East and West, in 395 ; and 
the final division of the Christian Church into a Western Latin 
and an Eastern Greek Church, which was gradually effected, 
finally drove Greek philosophy and learning and the Greek lan- 
guage from the western world. Greek was not to be known again 
in the West for hundreds of years. Fortunately the Eastern 
Church was more tolerant of pagan learning than was the West- 
ern, and was better able to withstand conquest by barbarian 
tribes. In consequence what the Greeks had done was preserved 
at Constantinople until Europe had once more become sufficiently 
civilized and tolerant to understand and appreciate it. Hellenic 
learning was then handed back to western Europe, first through 
the medium of the Saracens, and then in that great Revival of 
Learning which we know as the Renaissance. 

The future story. For the long period of intellectual stagnation 
which now followed, the educational story is briefly told. But 
little formal education was needed, and that of but one main type. 
It was only after the Church had won its victory over the bar- 
barian hordes, and had built up the foundations upon which a 
new civilization could be developed, that education in any broad 
and liberal sense was again needed. This required nearly a thou- 
sand years of laborious and painful effort. Then, when schools 
again became possible and learning again began to be demanded, 
education had to begin again with the few at the top, and the 
contributions of Greece and Rome had to be recovered and put 
into usable form as a basis upon which to build. It is only very 
recently that it has become possible to extend education to all. 
In Part II we shall next trace briefly the intellectual life of the 
Middle Ages, and the reawakening, and in Part III we shall, 
among other things, point out the deep and lasting influence of 
the work of these ancient civilizations on our modern educa- 
tional thoughts and practices. 



58 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Point out the many advantages of a universal religion for such a univer- 
sal Empire as Rome developed, and the advantages of Emperor worship 
for such an Empire. 

2. What do modern nations have that is much akin to Emperor worship? 

3. Explain how the Hebrew scribes, administering such a mixed body of 
laws, naturally came to be both teachers and judges for the people. 

4. Illustrate how the Hebrew tradition that the moral and spiritual unity 
of a people is stronger than armed force has been shown to be true in 
history. 

5. What great lessons may we draw from the work of the Hebrews in main- 
taining a national unity through compulsory education? 

6. Why was Jesus' idea as to the importance of the individual destined to 
make such slow headway in the world? What is the status of the idea 
to-day (a) in China? (b) in German}'? (c) in England? (d) in the 
United States? Is the idea necessarily opposed to nationality or even 
to a strong state government? 

7. Show how the poHtical Church, itself the State, was the natural outcome 
during the Middle Ages of the teachings of the early Christians as to the 
relationship of Church and State. 

8. Is it to be wondered that the Romans were finally led to persecute "the 
vast organized defiance of law by the Christians"? 

9. Show how the Christian idea of the equality and responsibility of all 
gave the citizen a new place in the State. 

10. Explain what is meant by "a State within a State" as apphed to the 
Church of the third and fourth centuries. Did this prove to be a good 
thing for the future of civilization? Why? 

11. Would Rome probably have been better able to withstand the barbarian 
invasions if Christianity had not arisen, or not? Why? 

12. Show how the Christian attitude toward pagan learning tended to stop 
schools and destroy the accumulated learning. 

13. What was the effect of the Christian attitude toward the care of the body, 
on scientific and medical knowledge, and on education? Was the Chris- 
tian or the pagan attitude more nearly like that of modern times? 

14. Why did the emphasis on form of belief, in the third and fourth centuries, 
come to supersede the emphasis on personal virtues and simple faith of 
the first and second centuries? 

15. Compare the work of the Sunday School of to-day with the catechumenal 
instruction of the early Christians. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 
' 27. The Talmud: Educational Maxims from. 

28. Saint Paul: Epistle to the Romans. 

29. Saint Paul: Epistle to the Athenians. 

30. The Crimes of the Christians. 

(a) Mincius FeHx: The Roman Point of View. 

(b) TertulHan: The Christian Point of View. 

31. Persecution of the Christians as Disloyal Subjects of the Empire. 

(a) Pliny to Trajan. 

(b) Trajan to Pliny. 



V 



CONTRIBUTION OF CHRISTIANITY 59 

32. Tertullian: EfTect of the Persecutions. 

33. Eusebius: Edicts of Diocletian against the Christians. 

34. Workman: Certificate of having Sacrificed to the Pagan Gods. 

35. Kingsley: The Empire and Christianity in Conflict. 

36. Lactantius: The Edict of Toleration by Galerius. 

37. Theodosian Code: The Faith of CathoHc Christians. 

38. Theodosian Code: Privileges and Immunities granted the Clergy. 

39. Apostolic Constitutions: How the Catechumens are to be instructed. 

40. Leach: Catechumcnal Schools of the Early Church. 

41. Apostolic Constitutions: Christians should abstain from all Heathen 

Books. 
I 42. The Nicene Creed of 325 a.d. 
^ 43. Saint Benedict: Extracts from the Rule of. 

44. Lanfranc: Enforcing Lenten Reading in the Monasteries 

45. Saint Jerome: Letter on the Education of Girls. 



SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

* Dill, Sam'l. Roman Society in the Last Century of the Western Empire. 
Fisher, Geo. P. Beginnings of Christianity. 

* Fisher, Geo. P. History of the Christian Church. 

* Hatch, Edw. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian 

Church. (Hibbert Lectures. 1888.) 
Hodgson, Geraldine. Primitive Church Education. 
Kretzmann, P. E. Education among the Jews. 
MacCabe, Joseph. Saint Augustine. 

* Monro, D. C. and Sellery, G. E. MedicEval Civilization. 

* Swift, F. H. Education in Ancient Israel to 70 a.d. 
Taylor, H. O. Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages. 
Wishart, A. W. Short History of Monks and Monasticism, 



PART II 
THE MEDIAEVAL WORLD 

• 

THE DELUGE OF BARBARISM 

THE MEDIEVAL STRUGGLE TO PRESERVE 

AND REESTABLISH CIVILIZATION 



I 



CHAPTER V 
NEW PEOPLES IN THE EMPIRE 

The weakened Empire. Though the first and second centuries 
A.D. have often been called one of the happiest ages in all human 
history, due to a succession of good Emperors and peace and quiet 
throughout the Roman world, the reign of the last of the good 
Emperors, Marcus Aurelius (161-180 a.d.), may be regarded as 
clearly marking a turning-point in the history of Roman society. 
Before his reign Rome was ascendant, prosperous, powerful.; 
during his reign the Empire was beset by many difficulties — 
pestilence, floods, famine, troubles with the Christians, and 
heavy German inroads — to which it had not before been accus- 
tomed; and after his reign the Empire was distinctly on the 
defensive and the decline. Though the elements contributing 
to this change in national destiny had their origin in the changes 
in the character of the national life at least two centuries earlier, 
it was not until now that the Empire began to feel seriously the 
effects of these changes in a lowered vitality and a weakened 
power of resistance. Sooner or later the boundaries of the Em- 
pire, which had held against the pressure from without for so long, 
were destined to be broken, and the barbarian deluge from the 
north and east would pour over the Empire. 

The boundaries of the Empire are broken. While temporary 
extensions of territory had at times been made beyond the 
Rhine and the Danube, these rivers had finally come to be the 
established boundaries of the Empire on the north, and behind 
these rivers the Teutonic barbarians, or Germani, as the Romans 
called them, had by force been kept. To do even this the Romans 
had been obliged to admit bands of Germans into the Empire, and 
had taken them into the Roman army as "allies," making use of 
their great love for fighting to hold other German tribes in check. 
In 166 A.D. the plague, brought back by soldiers returning from the 
East, carried off approximately half the population of Italy. This 
same year the Marcomanni, a former friendly tribe, invaded the 
Empire as far as the head of the Adriatic Sea, and it required 
thirteen years of warfare to put them back behind the Danube. 
Even this was accomplished only by the aid of friendly German 



64 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



tribes. From this time on the Empire was more or less on the 
defensive, with the barbarian tribes to the north casting increas- 
ingly longing eyes toward " a place in the sun" and the rich plun- 
der that lay to the south, and frequently breaking over the 
boundaries. 

Who these invaders were. A long-continued series of tribal 
migrations, unsurpassed before in history, soon brought a large 
number of new peoples within the boundaries of the old Empire. 
They finally came so fast that they could not have been assim- 
ilated even in the best days of Rome, and now 
the assimilative and digestive powers of Rome 
were gone. Tall, huge of limb, white-skinned, 
flaxen-haired, with fierce blue eyes, and clad in 
skins and rude cloths, they seemed like giants 
to the short, small, dark-skinned people of the 
Italian peninsula. Quarrelsome; delighting in 
fighting and gambhng; given to drunkenness 
and gluttonous eating; possessed of a rude 
polytheistic religion in which Woden, the war 
god, held the first place, and Valhalla was a 
heaven for those killed in battle ; living in rude 
villages in the forest, and maintaining them- 
selves by hunting and fishing — it is not to 
be wondered that Rome dreaded the coming 
of these forest barbarians (R. 46). 

The tribes nearest the Rhine and the Danube 
had taken on a little civilization from long 
contact with the Romans, but those farther 
Restored, and rather away were savage and unorganized (Rs. 46, 47) . 
idealized ^ j^ general they represented a degree of civili- 
d'ArtiUerk afparis) ^^^ion not particularly different from that of 
the better American Indians in our colonial 
period, though possessing a much larger ability to learn. The 
"two terrible centuries" which brought these new peoples into the 
Empire were marked by unspeakable disorder and frightful de- 
struction. It was the most complete catastrophe that had ever 
befallen civilized society. 

They settle down within the Empire. Finally, after a period 
of wandering and plundering, each of these new peoples settled 
down within the Empire as rulers over the numerically larger na- 
tive Roman population, and slowly began to turn from hunting 




Fig. 13. A German 
War Chief 



NEW PEOPLES IN THE EMPIRE 



65 




to a rude type of farming. For three or four centuries after the 
invasions ceased, though, Europe presented a dreary spectacle of 
ignorance, lawlessness, and violence. Force reigned where law 
and order had once been supreme. Work largely ceased, because 
there was no security for the results of labor. The Roman schools 
gradually died out, in part because of pagan hostility (all pagan 
schools were closed by imperial edict in 529 a.d.), and in part 
because they no longer ministered to any real need. The church 
and the monastery 
schools alone remain- 
ed, the instruction in 
these was meager in- 
deed, and they served 
almost entirely the 
special needs of the 
priestly and monas- 
tic classes. The Latin 
language was cor- 
rupted and modified 
into spoken dialects, 
and the written lan- 
guage died out except 
with the monks and 
the clergy. Even here it became greatly corrupted. Art per- 
ished, and science disappeared. The former Roman skill in 
handicrafts was largely lost. Roads and bridges were left with- 
out repair. Commerce and intercourse almost ceased. The 
cities decayed, and many were entirely destroyed (R. 49). 

The new ruling class was ignorant - — few could read or write 
their names — and they cared Kttle for the learning of Greece and 
Rome. Much of what was excellent in the ancient civilizations 
died out because these new peoples were as yet too ignorant to 
understand or use it, and what was preserved was due to the work 
of others than themselves. It was with such people and on such 
a basis that it was necessary for whatever constructive forces still 
remained to begin again the task of building up new foundations 
for a future European civilization. This was the work of centu- 
ries, and during the period the lamp of learning almost went out. 

Barbarian and Roman in contact. Civilization was saved from 
almost complete destruction chiefly by reason of the long and sub- 
stantial work which Rome had done in organizing and governing 



Fig. 14. Romans destroying a German Village 

(From the Column of Marcus Aurelius, at Rome) 

Note the circular huts of reeds, without windows, and 

with but a single door. 



66 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and unifying the Empire; by the relatively slow and gradual 
coming of the different tribes; and by the thorough organization 
of the governing side of the Christian Church, which had been 
effected before the Empire was finally overrun and Roman govern- 
ment ceased. In unifying the government of the Empire and 
establishing a common law, language, and traditions, and in early 
beginning the process of receiving barbarians into the Empire 
and educating them in her ways and her schools, Rome rendered 
the western world a service of inestimable importance and one 
which did much to prepare the way for the reception and assimi- 
lation of the invaders. In the cities, which remained Roman in 
spirit even after their rulers had changed, and where the Roman 
population greatly preponderated even after the invaders had 
come, some of the old culture and handicrafts were kept up, and 
in the cities of southern Europe the municipal form of city govern- 
ment was retained. Roman law still apphed to trials of Roman 
citizens, and many Roman governmental forms passed over to 
the invader chiefly because he knew no other. The old Roman 
population for long continued to furnish the clergy, and these, 
because of their ability to read and write, also became the secre- 
taries and advisers of their rude Teutonic overlords. In one 
capacity or another they persuaded the leaders of the tribes to 
adopt, not only Christianity, but many of the customs and prac- 
tices of the old civilization as well. These various influences 
helped to assimilate and educate the newcomers, and to save 
something of the old civilization for the future. Being strong, 
sturdy, and full of youthful energy, and with a large capacity for 
learning, the civilizing process, though long and difficult, was 
easier than it might otherwise have been, and because of their 
strength and vigor these new races in time infused new life and 
energy into every land from Spain to eastern Europe (R. 50). 

The impress of Christianity upon them. The importance of 
the services rendered by bishops, priests, and monks during what 
are known as the Dark Ages can hardly be overestimated. In 
the face of might they upheld the right of the Church and its 
representatives to command obedience and respect. The Chris- 
tian priest gradually forced the barbarian chief to do his will, 
though at times he refused to be awed into submission, murdered 
the priest, and sacked the sacred edifice. That the Church lost 
much of its early purity of worship, and adopted many practices 
fitted to the needs of the time, but not consistent with real reli- 



NEW PEOPLES IN THE EMPIRE 67 

gion, there can be no question. In time the Church gained much 
from the mixture of these new peoples among the old, as they 
infused new vigor and energy into the blood of the old races, but 
the immediate effect was quite otherwise. The Church itself was 
paganized, but the barbarians were in time Christianized. 

Priests and missionaries went among the heathen tribes and 
labored for their conversion. Of course the leaders were sought 
out first, and often the conversion of a chieftain was made by 
first converting his wife. After the chieftain had been won the 
minor leaders in time followed. The lesson of the cross was pro- 
claimed, and the softening and restraining influences of the Chris- 
tian faith were exerted on the barbarian. It was, however, a 
long and weary road to restore even a semblance of the order 
and respect for life and property which had prevailed under 
Roman rule. 

Work of the Church during the Middle Ages. Everywhere 
throughout the old Empire, and far into the forest depths of 
barbarian lands, went bishops, priests, and missionaries, and 
there parishes were organized, rude churches arose, and the 
process of educating the fighting tribesmen in the ways of civil- 
ized Hfe was carried out. It was not by schools of learning, but 
by faith and ceremonial that the Church educated and guided her 
children into the type she approved. Schools for other than 
monks and clergy for a time were not needed, and such practically 
died out. The Church and its offices took the place of education 
and exercised a wholesome and restraining influence over both 
young and old throughout the long period of the Middle Ages. 
These the Church in time taught the barbarian to respect. The 
great educational work of the Church during this period of in- 
security and ignorance has seldom been better stated than in 
the following words by Draper: 

Of the great ecclesiastics, many had risen from the humblest ranks 
of society, and these men, true to their democratic instincts, were often 
found to be the inflexible supporters of right against might. Eventu- 
ally coming to be the depositaries of the knowledge that then existed, 
they opposed intellect to brute force, in many instances successfully, 
and by the example of the organization of the Church, which was 
essentially republican, they showed how representative systems may 
be introduced into the State. Nor was it over communities and nations 
that the Church displayed her chief power. Never in the world before 
was there such a system. From her central seat at Rome, her all- 
seeing eye, like that of Providence itself, could equally take in a hemi- 
sphere at a glance, or examine the private life of any individual. Her 



68 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

boundless influences enveloped kings in their palaces, and relieved the 
beggar at the monastery gate. In all Europe there was not a man too 
obscure, too insignificant, or too desolate for her. Surrounded by her 
solemnities, every one received his name at her altar; her bells chimed 
at his marriage, her knell tolled at his funeral. She extorted from him 
the secrets of his Hfe at her confessionals, and punished his faults by 
her penances. In his hour of sickness and trouble her servants sought 
him out, teaching him, by her exquisite litanies and prayers, to place 
his reliance on God, or strengthening him for the trials of life by the 
example of the holy and just. Her prayers had an efficacy to give 
repose to the souls of his dead. When, even to his friends, his lifeless 
body had become an offense, in the name of God she received it into 
her consecrated ground, and under her shadow he rested till the great 
reckoning-day. From Uttle better than a slave she raised his wife to 
be his equal, and, forbidding him to have more than one, met her recom- 
pense for those noble deeds in a firm friend at every fireside. Dis- 
countenancing all impure love, she put round that fireside the children 
of one mother, and made that mother little less than sacred in their 
eyes. In ages of lawlessness and rapine, among people but a step above 
savages, she vindicated the inviolability of her precincts against the 
hand of power, and made her temples a refuge and sanctuary for the 
despairing and oppressed. Truly she was the shadow of a great rock 
in many a weary land. 

The civilizing work of the monasteries. No less important 
than the Church and its clergy was the work of the monasteries 
and their monks in building up a basis for a new civilization. 
These, too, were founded all over Europe. To make a map of 
western Europe showing the monasteries established by 800 a.d. 
would be to cover the map with a series of dots. The importance 
of their work is better understood when we remember that the 
Germans had never lived in cities, and did not settle in them on 
entering the Empire. The monasteries, too, were seldom estab- 
lished in towns. Their sites were in the river valleys and in the 
forests (R. 69), and the monks became the pioneers in clearing 
the land and preparing the way for agriculture and civilization. 
Not infrequently a swamp was taken and drained. The Middle- 
Age period was essentially a period of settlement of the land and 
of agricultural development, and the monks lived on the land 
and among a people just passing through the earhest stages of 
settled and civilized life. In a way the inheritors of the agricul- 
tural and handicraft knowledge of the Romans, the monks be- 
came the rhost skillful artisans and farmers to be found, and from 
them these arts in time reached the developing peasantry around 
them. Their work and services have been well summed up by 
the same author just quoted, as follows: 



NEW PEOPLES IN THE EMPIRE 69 

It was mainly by the monasteries that to the peasant class of Europe 
was pointed out the way of civiHzation. The devotions and charities; 
the austerities of the brethren; their abstemious meal; their meager 
cldthing, the cheapest of the country in which they hved ; their shaven 
heads, or the cowl which shut out the sight of sinful objects; the long 
staff in their hands; their naked feet and legs; their passing forth on 
their journeys by twos, each a watch on his brother; the prohibitions 
against eating outside of the wall of the monastery, which had its own 
mill, its own bakehouse, and whatever was needed in an abstemious 
domestic economy; their silent hospitality to the wayfarer, who was 
refreshed in a separate apartment; the lands around their buildings 
turned from a wilderness into a garden, and, above all, labor exalted 
and ennobled by their holy hands, and celibacy, forever, in the eye of 
the vulgar, a proof of separation from the world and a sacrifice to 
heaven — these were the things that arrested the attention of the bar- 
baria«ns of Europe, and led them on to civilization. 

The problem faced by the Middle Ages. That the lamp of 
learning burned low^ during this period of assimilation is no cause 
for wonder. Recovery from such a deluge of barbarism on a 
weakened society is not easy. In fact the recoverj was a long 
and slow process, occupying nearly the whole of a thousand years. 
The problem which faced the Church, as the sole surviving force 
capable of exerting any constructive influence, was that of chang- 
ing the barbarism and anarchy of the sixth century, with its low 
standards of living and lack of humane ideals, into the intelligent, 
progressive civilization of the fifteenth century. This was the 
work of the Middle Ages, and largely the work of the Christian 
Church. It was not a period of progress, but one of assimilation, 
so that a common western civilization might in time be developed 
out of the diverse and hostile elements mixed together by the rude 
force of circumstances. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Do the peculiar problems of assimilation of the foreign-born, revealed to 
us by the World War, put us in a somewhat similar position to Rome 
under the Empire as relates to the need of a guiding national faith? 

2. Outline how Rome might have been helped and strengthened by a 
national school system under state control. 

3. Outline how our state school systems could be made much more effective 
as national instruments by the infusion into their instruction of a strong 
national faith. 

4. Try to picture the results upon our civilization had western Europe 
become Mohammedan. 

5. The movement of new peoples into the Roman Empire was much slower 
than has been the immigration of foreign peoples into the United States, 
since 1840. Why the difference in assimilative power? 



70 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

6. How do you think the Roman provinces and Italy, after the tribes from 
the North had settled down within the Empire, compared with Mexico 
after the years of revolution with peons and brigands in control? With 
Russia, after the destruction wrought by the Bolshevists? 

7. Explain the importance of the long civilizing and educating work of 
Rome among the German tribes, in preparing the means for the preserva- 
tion of Roman institutions after the downfall of the Roman govern- 
ment. 

8. What does the fact that Roman institutions and Roman thinking con- 
tinued and profoundly modified mediaeval life indicate as to the nature 
of Roman government and the Roman power of assimilation? 

g. Though Rome never instituted a state school system, was there not 
after all large educational work done by the government through its 
intelligent administration? 

10. Show how the breakdown of Roman government and Roman institutions 
was naturally more complete in Gaul than in northern Italy, and more 
complete in northern than in central or southern Italy, and hence how 
Roman civilization was naturally preserved in larger measure in the 
cities of Italy than elsewhere. 

11. Show how the Christian Church, too, could not have completely dis- 
pensed with Roman letters and Roman civilization, had it desired to do 
so, but was forced of necessity to preserve and pass on important portions 
of the civilization of Rome. 

12. What do you think would have been the effect on the future of civiliza- 
tion had the barbarian tribes overrun Spain, Italy, and Greece during 
the Age of Pericles? 

13. What modern analogies do we have to the civilizing work of the monks 
and clergy during the Middle Ages? 

14. Picture the work of the monasteries in handing on to western Europe 
the arts and handicrafts and skilled occupations of Rome. Cite some 
examples. 

15. What civilizing problem, somewhat comparable to that of barbarian 
Europe, have we faced in our national history? Why have we been 
able to obtain results so much more rapidly? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

46. Caesar: The Hunting Germans and their Fighting Ways. 

47. Tacitus: The Germans and their Domestic Habits. 

48. Dill: Effect on the Roman World of the News of the Sacking of Rome 
by Alaric. 

49. Giry and Reville: Fate of the Old Roman Towns. 

50. Kingsley: The Invaders, and what they brought. 

51. General Form for a Grant of Immunity to a Bishop. 

52. Charlemagne: Powers and Immunities granted to the Monastery of 
Saint Marcellus. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

* Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 
Church, R. W. The Beginnings of the Middle Ages. 
Kingsley, Chas. The Roman and Teuton. 

* Thorndike, Lynn. History of Medieval Europe. 



CHAPTER VI 

EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES^ 

I. CONDITION AND PRESERVATION OF LEARNING 

The low intellectual level. As was stated in the preceding 
chapter, the lamp of learning burned low throughout the most of 
western Europe during the period of assimilation and partial 
civilization of the barbarian tribes. The western portion of the 
Roman Empire had been overrun, and rude Germanic chieftains 
were establishing, by the law of might, new kingdoms on the 
ruins of the old. The Germanic tribes had no intellectual Hfe of 
their own to contribute, and no intellectual tastes to be ministered 
unto. With the destruction of cities and towns and country 
villas, with their artistic and literary collections, much that repre- 
sented the old culture was obliterated, and books became more 
and more scarce. The destruction was gradual, but by the be- 
ginning of the seventh century the loss had become great. The 
Roman schools also gradually died out as the need for an educa- 
tion which prepared for government and gave a knowledge of 
Roman law passed away, and the type of education approved by 
the Church was left in complete control of the field. As the 
security and leisure needed for studj disappeared, and as the only 
use for learning was now in the service of the Church, education 
became limited to the narrow lines which offered such preparation 
and to the few who needed it. Amid the ruins of the ancient civili- 
zation the Church stood as the only conservative and regenera- 
tive force, and naturally what learning remained passed into its 
hands and under its control. 

The result of all these influences and happenings was that by 
the beginning of the seventh century Christian Europe had 
reached a very low intellectual level, and during the seventh and 
eighth centuries conditions grew worse instead of better. Only 
in England and Ireland, as will be pointed out a little later, and 
in a few Italian cities, was there anything of consequence of the 
old Roman learning preserved. On the Continent there was little 
general learning, even among the clergy (R. 64 a). Many of the 

^ From the sixth to the twelfth centuries. 



^2 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

priests were woefully ignorant, and the Latin writings of the time 
contain many inaccuracies and corruptions which reveal the low 
standard of learning even among the better educated of the 
clerical class. The Church itself was seriously affected by the 
prevailing ignorance of the period, and incorporated into its sys- 
tem of government and worship many barbarous customs and 
practices of which it was a long time in ridding itself. So great 
had become the ignorance and superstition of the time, among 
priests, monks, and the people; so much had religion taken on 
the worship of saints and relics and shrines; and so much had 
the Church developed the sensuous and symbohc, that religion 
had in reality become a crude polytheism instead of the simple 
monotheistic faith of the early Church. Along scientific lines 
especially the loss was very great. Scientific ideas as to natu- 
ral phenomena disappeared, and crude and childish ideas as to 
natural forces came to prevail. As if barbarian chiefs and rob- 
ber bands were not enough, popular imagination peopled the 
world with demons, goblins, and dragons, and all sorts of super- 
stitions and supernatural happenings were recorded. Intercom- 
munication largely ceased; trade and commerce died out; the 
accumulated wealth of the past was destroyed; and the old 
knowledge of the known world became badly distorted, as is 
evidenced by the many crude mediaeval maps. The only scholar- 
ship of the time, if such it might be called, was the httle needed 
by the Church to provide for and maintain its government and 
worship. Almost everything that we to-day mean by civiliza- 
tion in that age was found within the protecting walls of mon- 
astery or church, and these institutions were at first too busy 
building up the foundations upon which a future culture might 
rest to spend much time in preserving learning, much less in 
advancing it. 

The monasteries develop schools. In this age of perpetual law- 
lessness and disorder the one opportunity for a life of repose and 
scholarly contemplation lay in the monasteries. Here the rule 
of might and force was absent (R. 52), and the timid, the devout, 
and the studiously inclined here found a refuge from the turbu- 
lence and brutality of a rude civilization. The early monasteries, 
and especially the monastery of Saint Victor, at Marseilles, 
founded by Cassian in 404, had represented a culmination of the 
western feeling of antagonism to all ancient learning, but with the 
founding of Monte Cassino by Saint Benedict, in 529 A.D., and 



PRESERVATION OF LEARNING 



73 



the promulgation of the Benedictine rule (R. 43), a. more liberal 
attitude was shown. This rule was adopted generally by the 
monasteries throughout what is now Italy, Spain, France, Ger- 
many, and England, and the Benedictine became the type for the 




Fig. 15. A Typical Monastery of Southern Europe 

monks of the early Middle Ages. To this order we are largely 
indebted for the copying of books and the preservation of learning 
throughout the mediaeval period. 

The 48th rule of Saint Benedict, it will be remembered (R. 43), 
had imposed reading and study as a part of the daily duty of 
every monk, but had said nothing about schools. Subsequent 
regulations issued by superiors had aimed at the better enforce- 
ment of this rule (R. 44), that the monks might lead devout lives 
and know the Bible and the sacred writings of the Church. Im- 
posed at first as a matter of education and discipline for the monks, 
this rule ultimately led to the estabUshment of schools and the 
development of a system of monastic instruction. As youths 
were received at an early age into the monasteries to prepare for 
a monastic Hfe, it was necessary that they be taught to read if 
they were later to use the sacred books. This led to the duty of 
instructing novices, which marks the beginning of monastic in- 
struction for those within the walls. As books were scarce and at 
the same time necessary, and the only way to get new ones was to 
copy from old ones, the monasteries were soon led to take up the 
work once carried on by the publishing houses of ancient Rome, 
and in much the same way. This made writing necessary, and 
the- novices had to be instructed carefully in this, as well as in 
reading. The chants and music of the Church called for in- 
struction of the novices in music, and the celebration of Easter 
and the fast and festival days of the Church called for some rudi- 
mentary instruction in numbers and calculation. 



74 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Out of these needs rose the monastery school, the copying of 
manuscripts, and the preservation of books. Due to their 
greater security and quiet the monasteries became the leading 
teaching institutions of the early part of the Middle-Age period, 
and those who wished their children trained for the service of the 
Church gave them to the monasteries (R. 53 a). The develop- 
ment of the monastic schools was largely voluntary, though from 
an early date bishops and rulers began urging the monasteries to 
open schools for boys in connection with their houses, and schools 
became in time a regular feature of the monastic organization. 
From schools only for those intending to take the vows (oblati), 
the instruction was gradually opened, after the ninth century, 
to others iexterni) not intending to take the vows, and what came 
to be known as "outer" monastic schools were in time developed. 

The monasteries became the preservers of learning. Another 
need developed the copying of pagan books, and incidentally the 
preservation of some of the best of Roman Kterature. The lan- 
guage of the Church very naturally was Latin, as it was a direct 
descendant of Roman life, governmental organization, citizenship, 
and education. The writings of the Fathers of the Western 
Church had all been in Latin, and in the fourth century the Bible 
had been translated from the Greek into the Latin. This edition, 
known as the Vulgate Bible, became the standard for western 
Europe for ten -centuries to come. The German tribes which 
had invaded the Empire had no written languages of their own, 
and their spoken dialects differed much from the Latin speech of 
those whom they had conquered. Latin was thus the language 
of all those of education, and naturally continued as the language 
of the Church and the monastery for both speech and writing. 
All books were, of course, written in Latin. 

Under the rude influences and the general ignorance of the 
period, though, the language was easily and rapidly corrupted, 
and it became necessary for the monasteries and the churches to 
have good models of Latin prose and verse to refer to. These 
were best found in the old Latin literary authors — particularly 
Caesar, Cicero, and Vergil. To have these, due to the great 
destruction of old books which had taken place during the inter- 
vening centuries, it was necessary to copy these authors, as well 
as the Psalter, the Missal, the sacred books, and the writings of 
the Fathers of the Church (Rs. 55, 56). It thus happened that 
the monasteries unintentionally began to preserve and use the 



PRESERVATION OF LEARNING 



75 




Fig. i6. Charlemagne's Empire, and the Important Monasteries 

OF the Time 
Charlemagne's empire at his death is shaded darker than other parts of the map 

ancient Roman books, and from using them at first as models for 
style, an interest in their contents was later awakened. While 
many of the monasteries remained as farming, charitable, and 
ascetic institutions almost exclusively, and were never noted for 
their educational work, a small but increasing number gradually 
accumulated libraries and became celebrated for their literary 
activity and for the character of their instruction. The monas- 
teries thus in time became the storehouses of learning, the pub- 
lishing houses of the Middle Ages (Rs. 54, 55, 56), teaching 
institutions of first importance, and centers of literary activity 
and rehgious thought, as well as centers for agricultural develop- 
ment, work in the arts and crafts, and Christian hospitality. 
Many developed into large and important institutions (R. 69). 



76 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The convents and their schools. The early part of the Middle 
Ages also witnessed a remarkable development of convents for 
women, these receiving a special development in Germanic lands. 
Filled with the same aggressive spirit as the men, but softened 
somewhat by Christianity, many women of high station among 
the German tribes founded convents and developed institutions 
of much renown. This provided a rather superior class of women 
as organizers and directors, and a conventual life continued, 
throughout the entire Middle Ages, to attract an excellent class 
of women. This will be understood when it is remembered that 
a conventual Hfe offered to women of intellectual abihty and schol- 
arly tastes the one opportunity for an education and a life of 
learning. The convents, too, were much earlier and much more 
extensively opened for instruction to those not intending to take 
the vows than was the case with the monasteries, and, in conse- 
quence, it became a common practice throughout the Middle 
Ages, just as it is to-day among Catholic families, to send girls to 
the convent for education and for training in manners and religion. 
Many well-trained women were produced in the convents of 
Europe in the period from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries. 

The instruction consisted of reading, writing, and copying 
Latin, as in the monasteries, as well as music, weaving and spin- 
ning, and needlework.. Weaving and spinning had an obvious 
utilitarian purpose, and needlework, in addition to necessary 
sewing, was especially useful in the production of altar-cloths and 
sacred vestments. The copying and illuminating of manuscripts, 
music, and embroidering made a special appeal to women (R. 56), 
and some of the most beautifully copied and illuminated manu- 
scripts of the mediaeval period are products of their skill. Their 
contribution to music and art, as it influenced the life of the time, 
was also large. The convent schools reached their highest devel- 
opment about the middle of the thirteenth century, after which 
they began to decline in importance. 

The cathedral school at York. One of the schools which early 
attained fame was the cathedral school at York, in northern Eng- 
land. This had, by the middle of the eighth century, come to 
possess for the time a large library, and contained most of the 
important Latin authors and textbooks then known (R. 61). In 
this school, under the scholasticus Albert, was trained a youth by 
the name of Alcuin, bom in or near York, about 735 A. d. In a 
poem describing the school (R. 60), he gives a good portrayal 



PRESERVATION OF LEARNING 77 

of the instruction he received, telling how the learned ^Elbert 
''moistened thirsty hearts with diverse streams of teaching and 
the varied dews of learning," and sorted out "youths of conspicu- 
ous inteUigence" to whom he gave special attention. Alcuin 
afterward succeeded ^^Ibert as scholasticus, and was widely known 
as a gifted teacher. Well aware of the precarious condition of 
learning amid such a rude and uncouth society, he handed on to 
his pupils the learning he had received, and imbued them with 
something of his own love for it and his anxiety for its preserva- 
tion and advancement. It was this Alcuin who was soon to give 
a new impetus to the development of schools and the preservation 
of learning in Frankland. 

Charlemagne and Alcuin. In 768 there came to the throne as 
king of the great Frankish nation one of the most distinguished 
and capable rulers of all time — a man who would have been a 
commanding personality in any age or land. His ancestors had 
developed a great kingdom, and it was his grandfather who had 
severely defeated the Saracens at Tours and driven them back 
over the Pyrenees into Spain. This man Charlemagne easily 
stands out as one of the greatest figures of all history. For five 
hundred years before and after him there is no ruler who matched 
him in insight, force, or executive capacity. He is particularly 
the dominating figure of mediaeval times. Born in an age of law- 
lessness and disorder, he used every effort to civilize and rule as 
intelKgently as possible the great Frankish kingdom. 

Realizing better than did his bishops and abbots the need for 
educational facilities for the nobles and clergy, he early turned 
his attention to securing teachers capable of giving the needed 
instruction. These, though, were scarce and hard to obtain. 
After two unsuccessful efforts to obtain a master scholar to be- 
come, as it were, his minister of education, he finally succeeded 
in drawing to his court perhaps the greatest scholar and teacher 
in all England. At Parma, in northern Italy, Charlemagne met 
Alcuin, in 781, and invited him to leave York for Frankland. 
After obtaining the consent of his archbishop and king, Alcuin 
accepted, and arrived, with three assistants, at Charlemagne's 
court, in 782, to take up the work of educational propaganda in 
Frankland. 

The plight in which he found learning was most deplorable, 
presenting a marked contrast to conditions in England. Learning 
had been almost obHterated during the two centuries of wild dis- 



j^ A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

order from 600 on. From 600 to 850 has often been called the 
darkest period of the Dark Ages, and Alcuin arrived when Frank- 
land was at its worst. The monastic and cathedral schools which 
had been estabhshed earlier had in large part been broken up, 
and the monasteries had become places for the pensioning of royal 
favorites and hence had lost their earlier religious zeal and effec- 
tiveness. The abbots and bishops possessed but Kttle learning, 
and the lower clergy, recruited largely from bondmen, were grossly 
ignorant, greatly to the injury of the Church. The copying of 
books had almost ceased, and learning was slowly dying out. 

The palace school. There had for some time been a form of 
school connected with the royal court, known as the palace school, 
though the study of letters had played but a small part in it. To 
the reorganization of this school Alcuin first addressed himself, 
introducing into it elementary instruction in that learning of 
which he was so fond. The school included the princes and 
princesses of the royal household, relatives, attaches, courtiers, 
and, not least in importance as pupils, the king and queen. To 
meet the needs of such a heterogeneous circle was no easy task. 

The instruction which Alcuin provided for the younger 
members of the circle was largely of the question and answer 
(catechetical) type, both questions and answers being prepared 
by Alcuin beforehand and learned by the pupils. Fortunately 
examples of Alcuin's instruction have been preserved to us in 
a dialogue prepared for the instruction of Pepin, a son of Charle- 
magne, then sixteen years old (R. 62). With the older mem- 
bers the questions and answers were oral. For all, though, the 
instruction was of a most elementary nature, ranging over the 
elements of the subjects of instruction of the tune. Poetry, arith- 
metic, astronomy, the writings of the Fathers, and theology are 
mentioned as having been studied. Charlemagne learned to read 
Latin, but is said never to have mastered the art of writing. 

Charlemagne *s proclamations on education. After reorganiz- 
ing the palace school, Alcuin and Charlemagne turned their 
attention to the improvement of education among the monks and 
clergy throughout the realm. The first important service was 
the preparation and sending . out of a carefully collected and 
edited series of sermons to the churches containing, " in two vol- 
umes, lessons suitable for the whole year and for each separate 
festival, and free from error." These Charlemagne ordered used 
in the churches (R. 63). He also says, "we have striven with 



PRESERVATION OF LEARNING 79 

watchful zeal to advance the cause of learning, which has been 
almost forgotten by the negligence of our ancestors; and, by our 
example, also we invite those whom we can to master the study 
of the liberal arts," meaning thereby to incite the bishops and 
clergy to a study of the learning of the mediaeval time. The vol- 
umes and letter were sent out in 786, four years after Alcuin's 
arrival at the court. Further to aid in the revival of learning, 
Charlemagne, in 787, imported a number of monks from Italy, 
who were capable of giving instruction in arithmetic, singing, and 
grammar, and sent them to the principal monasteries to teach. 

In 787 the first general proclamation on education of the 
Middle Ages v/as issued (R. 64 a), and from it we can infer much 
as to the state of learning among the monks and clergy of the time. 
In this document the king gently reproves the abbots of his realm 
for their illiteracy, and exhorts them to the study of letters. The 
signature is Charlemagne's, but the hand is Alcuin's. In it he 
tells the abbots, in commenting on the fact that they had sent 
letters to him telling him that "sacred and pious prayers" were 
being offered in his behalf, that he recognized in "most of these 
letters both correct thoughts and uncouth expressions; because 
what pious devotion dictated faithfully to the mind, the tongue, 
uneducated on account of the neglect of study, was not able to 
express in a letter without error." He therefore commands the 
abbots neither to neglect the study of letters, if they wish to have 
his favor, nor to fail to send copies of his letter "to all your suf- 
fragans and fellow bishops, and to all the monasteries." Two 
years later (789) Charlemagne supplemented this by a further 
general admonition (R. 64 b) to the ministers and clergy of his 
realm, exhorting them to live clean and just lives, and closing 
with: 

And let schools be established in which boys may learn to read. 
Correct carefully the Psalms, the signs in writing, the songs, the calen- 
dar, the grammar, in each monastery and bishopric, and the catholic 
book; because often some desire to pray to God properly, but they pray 
badly because of incorrect books. 

Effect of the work of Charlemagne and Alcuin. The actual 
results of the work of Charlemagne and Alcuin were, after all, 
rather meager. The difficulties they faced are almost beyond our 
comprehension. Nobles and clergy were alike ignorant and un- 
couth. There seemed no place to begin. It may be said that by 
Charlemagne's work he greatly widened the area of civilization, 



8o 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



created a new Frankish-Roman Empire to be the inheritor of the 
civilization and culture of the old one, checked the decline in 
learning and reawakened a desire for study, and that he began the 
substitution of ideas for might as a ruling force among the tribes 
under his rule. That for a time he gave an important impetus 
to the study of letters, which resulted in a real revival in the edu- 
cational work of some of the monasteries and cathedral schools, 
seems certain. Men knew more of books and wrote better Latin 
than before, and those who wished to learn found it easier to do 
so. The state of society and the condition of the times, however, 
were against any large success for such an ambitious educational 
undertaking, and after the death of Charlemagne, the division of 
his empire, and the invasions of the Northmen, education slowly 
declined again, though never to quite the level it had reached 
when Charlemagne came to the throne. In a few schools there was 
no decline, and these became the centers of learning of the future. 

New invasions; 
the Northmen. Five 
years after Alcuin 
went to Frankland 
to help Charle- 
magne revive learn- 
ing in his kingdom, 
a fresh series of bar- 
barian invasions be- 
gan with the raiding 
of the English coast 
by the Danes. In 
raid after raid, ex- 
tending over nearly 
a hundred years, 
these Danes grad- 
ually overran all of 
eastern and central 
England from Lon- 
don north to beyond 
Whitby, plundering 
and burning the 
churches and mon- 
asteries, and de- 
stroying books and learning everywhere. By the Peace of Wed- 




FiG. 17. Where the Danes ravaged England 



PRESERVATION OF LEARNING 8i 

more, effected by King Alfred in 878, the Danes were finally 
given about one half of England, and in return agreed to settle 
down and accept Christianity. 

Work of Alfred in England. The set-back to learning caused by 
this latest deluge of barbarism was a serious one, and one from 
which the land did not recover for a long time. In northern 
Frankland and in England the results were disastrous. The 
revival which Charlemagne had started was checked, and England 
did not recover from the blow for centuries. Even in the parts 
of England not invaded and pillaged, education sadly declined 
as a result of nearly a century of struggle against the invaders 
(R. 66). Alfred, known to history as Alfred the Great, who ruled 
as English king from 871 to 901, made great efforts to revive 
learning in his kingdom. Probably inspired by the example of 
Charlemagne, he estabHshed a large palace school (R. 68), to the 
support of which he devoted one eighth of his income; he imported 
scholars from Mercia and Frankland (R. 67); restored many 
monasteries; and tried hard to revive schools and encourage 
learning throughout his realm, and with some success. With 
the great decay of the Latin learning he tried to encourage the 
use of the native Anglo-Saxon language, and to this end trans- 
lated books from Latin into Anglo-Saxon for his people. 

In Ihe preceding chapter and in this one we have traced briefly 
the great invasions, or migrations, which took place in western 
Europe, and indicated somewhat the great destruction they 
wrought within the bounds of the old Empire. In this chapter 
we have traced the beginnings of Christian schools to replace the 
ones destroyed, the preservation of learning in the monasteries, 
and the efforts of Charlemagne and Alfred to revive learning in 
their kingdoms. In the chapter which follows we shall describe 
the mediaeval system of education as it had evolved by the 
twelfth century, after which we shall be ready to pass to the 
beginnings of that Revival of Learning which ultimately resulted 
in the rediscovery of the learning of the ancient world. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Picture the gradual dying-out of Roman learning in the Western Empire, 
and explain why pagan schools and learning Hngered longer in Britain, 
Ireland, and Italy than elsewhere. 

2. At what time was the old Roman civilization and learning most nearly 
extinct? 

3. Explain how the monasteries were forced to develop schools to maintain 
any intellectual life. 



82 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

4. Explain how the copying of manuscripts led to further educational 
development in the monasteries. 

5. Would the convents have tended to attract a higher quality of women 
than the monasteries did of men? Why? 

6. Explain why Greek was known longer in Ireland and Britain than else- 
where in the West. 

7. What light is thrown on the conditions of the civilization of the time by 
the small permanent success of the efforts of Charlemagne, looking toward 
a revival of learning in Frankland? 

8. Explain how Latin came naturally to be the language of the Church, 
and of scholarship in western Europe throughout all the Middle Ages. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following are reproduced: 

53. Migne: Forms used in connection with monastery life: 

(a) Form for offering a Child to a Monastery. 

(b) The Monastic Vow. 

(c) Letter of Honorable Dismissal from a Monastery. 

54. Abbot Heriman: The Copying of Books at a Monastery. 

55. Othlonus: Work of a Monk in writing and copying Books. 

56. A Monk: Work of a Nun in copying Books. 

57. Symonds: Scarcity and Cost of Books. 

58. Clark- Anathemas to protect Books from Theft. 

59. Bede: On Education in Early England. 

(a) The Learning of Theodore. 

(b) Theodore's Work for the EngHsh Churches. 

(c) How Albinus succeeded Abbot Hadrian. 

60. Alcuin: Description of the School at York. 

61. Alcuin: Catalogue of the Cathedral Library at York. 

62. Alcuin: Specimens of the Palace School Instruction. 

63. Charlemagne: Letter sending out a Collection of Sermons. 

64. Charlemagne: General Proclamations as to Education. 

(a) The Proclamation of 787 a.d. 

(b) General Admonition of 789 a.d. 

(c) Order as to Learning of 802 a.d. 

65. Alcuin: Letter to Charlemagne as to Books and Learning. 

66. King Alfred: State of Learning in England in his Time. 

67. Asser: Alfred obtains Scholars from Abroad. 

68. Asser: Education of the Son of King Alfred. 

69. Ninth-Century Plan of the Monastery at Saint Gall. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

* Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 

* Clark, J. W. Libraries in the Mediceval and Renaissance Period. 

* Cutts, Edw. L. Scenes and Characters of tht Middle Ages. 

* Eckenstein, Lina. Women under Monasticism. 
Leach, A. F. The Schools of Mediceval England. 
Monro, D. C. and Sellery, G. E. Mediceval Civilization. 
Montalembert, Count de. The Monks of the West. 
Taylor, H. O. Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages. 
Thorndike, Lynn. History of Mediceval Europe. 

West, A. F. Alcuin, and the Rise of Christian Schools. 

* Wishart, A. W. Short History of Monks and Monasticism. 



CHAPTER VII 
EDUCATION DURING THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES 
II. SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 

I. Elementary instruction and schools 
Monastic and conventual schools. In the preceding chapters 
we found that, by the tenth century, the monasteries had devel- 
oped both inner monastic schools for those intending to take the 
vows (oblati), and outer monastic schools for those not so intend- 
ing (externi). The distinction in name was due to the fact that 
the oblati were from the first considered as belonging to the 
brotherhood, participating in the religious services and helping 
the monks at their work. The others were not so admitted, and 
in all monasteries of any size a separate building, outside the main 
portion of the monastery was provided for the outer school. 




Fig. 1 8. An Outer Monastic School 
(After an old wood engraving) 



A similar classification of instruction had been evolved for the 
convents. 

The instruction in the inner school was meager, and in the 
outer school probably even more so. Reading, writing, music, 
simple reckoning, religious observances, and rules of conduct 
constituted the range of instruction. Reading was taught by 
the alphabet method, as among the Romans, and writing by the 



84 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

use of wax tablets and the stylus. Much attention was given 
to Latin pronunciation, as had been the practice at Rome. As 
Latin by this time had practically ceased to be a living tongue, 
outside the Church and perhaps in Central Italy, the difficul- 
ties of instruction were largely increased. The Psalter, or book 
of Latin psalms, was the first reading book, and this was memo- 
rized rather than read. Copy-books, usually wax, with copies 
expressing some scriptural injunction, were used. Music, being 
of so much importance in the church services, received much 
time and attention. In arithmetic, counting and finger reck- 
oning, after the Roman plan, were taught. Latin was used in 
conversation as much as possible, some of the old lesson books 
ranch resembling conversation books of to-day in the modem 
languages (R. 75). Special attention seems to have been given 
to teaching rules of conduct to the ohlati, and much corporal 
punishment was used to facilitate learning. Up to the eleventh 
century this instruction, meager as it was, constituted the whole 
of the preparatory training necessary for the study of theology 
and a career in the Church. In the convents similar schools were 
developed, though, as stated in the last chapter, much more atten- 
tion was given to the education of those not intending to take the 
vows. 

Song and parish schools. In the cathedral churches, and other 
larger non-cathedral churches, the musical part of the service 
was very important, and to secure boys for the choir and for other 
church services these churches organized what came to be known 
as song schools (R. 70). In these a number of promising boys were 
trained in the same studies and in much the same way as were 
boys in the monastery schools, except that much more attention 
was given to the musical instruction. The students in these 
schools were placed under the precentor (choir director) of the 
cathedral, or other large church, the scholasticus confining his 
attention to the higher or more literary instruction provided. 
The boys usually were given board, lodging, and instruction in 
return for their services as choristers. As the parish churches in 
the diocese also came to need boys for their services, parish 
schools of a similar nature were in time organized in connection 
with them. It was out of this need, and by a very slow and 
gradual evolution, that the parish school in western Europe was 
developed later on. 

Chantry schools. Still another type of elementary school, 



SCHOOLS AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 85 

which did not arise until near the latter part of the period under 
consideration in this chapter, but which will be enumerated here 
as descriptive of a type which later became very common^ came 
through wills, and the schools came to be known as chantry schools, 
or stipendary schools. Men, in dying, who felt themselves particu- 
larly in need of assistance for their misdeeds on earth, would 
leave a sum of money to a church to endov/ a priest, or sometimes 
two, who were to chant masses each day for the repose of their 
souls. Sometimes the property was left to endow a priest to say 
mass in honor of some special saint, and frequently of the Virgin 
Mary. As such priests usually felt the need for some other occu- 
pation, some of them began voluntarily to teach the elements of 
religion and learning to selected boys, and in time it became com- 
mon for those leaving money for the prayers to stipulate in the 
will that the priest should also teach a school. Usually a very 
elementary type of school was provided, where the children were 
taught to know the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the Salutation to 
the Virgin, certain psalms, to sign themselves rightly with the 
sign of the cross, and perhaps to read and write (Latin). Some- 
times, on the contrary, and especially was this the case later on 
in England, a grammar school was ordered maintained. After 
the twelfth century this type of foundation (R. 73) became quite 
common. 

2. Advanced instruction 

Cathedral and higher monastic schools. As the song schools 
developed the cathedral schools were of course freed from the 
necessity of teaching reading and writing, and could then develop 
more advanced instruction. This they did, as did many of the 
monasteries, and to these advanced schools those who felt the 
need for more training went. As grammar was, throughout all 
the early part of the Middle Ages, the first and most important 
subject of instruction, the advanced schools came to be known 
as grammar schools, as well as cathedral or episcopal schools 
(R. 72). The cathedral churches and monasteries of England and 
France early became celebrated for the high character of their 
instruction (R. 71) and the type of scholars they produced. All 
these schools, though, suffered a serious set-back during the period 
of the Danish and Norman invasions, many being totally destroyed. 

These two types of advanced schools — the cathedral or epis- 
copal and the monastic — formed what might be called the secon- 



86 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

dary- school system of the early Middle Ages (Rs. 70, 71). They 
were for at least six hundred years the only advanced teaching 
institutions in western Europe, and out of one or the other of 
these two types of advanced schools came practically all those 
who attained to leadership in the service of the Church in either 
of its two great branches. Still more, out of the impetus given to 
advanced study by the more important of these schools, the uni- 
versities of a later period developed; and numerous private gifts 
of lands and money were made to establish grammar schools to 
supplement the work done by the cathedral and other large 
church schools. 

The Seven Liberal Arts. The advanced studies which were 
offered in the more important monastery and cathedral schools 
comprised what came to be known as The Seven Liberal Arts of 
the Middle Ages. The knowledge contained in these studies, 
taught as the advanced instruction of the period, represents the 
amount of secular learning which was intentionally preserved by 
the Church from neglect and destruction during the period of the 
barbarian deluges and the reconstruction of society. 

These Seven Liberal Arts were comprised of two divisions, 
known as: 

I. The Trivium: (i) Grammar; (2) Rhetoric; (3) Dialectic (Logic). 
II. The Quadrivium: (4) Arithmetic; (5) Geometry; (6) Astron- 
omy; (7) Music. 

Beyond these came Ethics or Metaphysics, and the greatest of 
all studies, Theology. This last represented the one professional 
study of the whole middle-age period, and was the goal toward 
which all the preceding studies had tended. 

Not all these studies were taught in every monastery or cathe- 
dral school. Many of the lesser monasteries and schools offered 
instruction chiefly in grammar, and only a little of the studies 
beyond. Others emphasized the Trivium, and taught perhaps 
only a little of the second group. Only a few taught the full range 
of mediaeval learning, and these were regarded as the great schools 
of the times (R. 71). 

Rhabanus Maurus (776-865), one of the greatest minds of the 
Middle Ages, Abbot for years at Fulda, and a mediaeval textbook 
writer of importance, has left us a good description of each of the 
Seven Liberal Arts studies as they were developed in his day, and 
their use in the Christian scheme of education (R. 74). 




Plate i. Saint Thomas Aquinas in the School of 

Albertus Magnus 

(After the painting by H. Lerolle) 



SCHOOLS AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 87 

3 . Training of the nobility 

Tenth-century conditions. Following the death of Charle- 
magne and the break-up of the empire held together by him, a 
period of organized anarchy followed in western Europe. Author- 
ity broke down more completely than before, and Europe, for 
protection, was forced to organize itself into a great number of 
small defensive groups. Serfs, freemen lacking land, and small 
landowners alike came to depend on some nobleman for protec- 
tion, and this nobleman in turn upon some lord or overlord. For 
this protection military service was rendered in return. The 
lord lived in his castle, and the peasantry worked his land and 
supported him, fighting his battles if the need arose. This condi- 
tion of society was known as /ew^aZixw, and the feudal relations 
of lord and vassal came to be the prevailing governmental organi- 
zation of the period. Feudalism was at best an organized an- 
archy, suited to rude and barbarous times, but so well was it 
adapted to existing conditions that it became the prevailing form 
of government, and continued as such until a better order of 
society could be evolved. With the invention of gunpowder, the 
rise of cities and industries, the evolution of modern States by the 
consolidation of numbers of these feudal governments, and the 
estabhshment of order and civiKzation, feudalism passed out with 
the passing of the conditions which gave rise to it. From the 
end of the ninth to the middle of the thirteenth centuries it was 
the dominant form of government. 

The life of the nobihty under the feudal regime gave a certain 
picturesqueness to what was otherwise an age of lawlessness and 
disorder. The chief occupation of a noble was fighting, either in 
his own quarrel or that of his overlord. It is hard for us to-day 
to realize how much fighting went on then. Much was said about 
''honor," but quarrels were easily started, and oaths were poorly 
kept. It was a day of personal feuds and private warfare, and 
every noble thought it his right to wage war on his neighbor at 
any time, without asking the consent of any one. As a prepara- 
tion for actual warfare a series of mimic encounters, known as 
tournaments, were held, in which it often happened that knights 
were killed. In these encounters mounted knights charged one 
another with spear and lance, performing feats similar to those 
of actual warfare. This was the great amusement of the period, 
compared with which the German duel, the Mexican bullfight, 



88 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

or the American game of football are mild sports. The other 
diversions of the knights and nobles were hunting, hawking, 
feasting, drinking, making love, minstrelsy, and chess. Intel- 
lectual abihty formed no part of their accomplishments, and a 
knowledge of reading and writing was commonly regarded as 
effeminate. 

To take this carousing, fighting, pillaging, ravaging, destruc- 
tive, and murderous instinct, so strong by nature among the 
Germanic tribes, and refine it and in time use it to some better 
purpose, and in so doing to increasingly civilize these Germanic 
lords and overlords, was the problem which faced the Church and 
all interested in estabUshing an orderly society in Europe. As 
a means of checking this outlawry the Church estabhshed and 
tried to enforce the ''Truce of God" (R. 79), and as a partial 
means of educating the nobility to some better conception of a 
purpose in life the Church aided in the development of the educa- 
tion of chivalry, the first secular form of education in western 
Europe since the days of Rome, and added its sanction to it after 
it arose. 

The education of chivalry. This form of education was an 
evolution. It began during the latter part of the ninth century 
and the early part of the tenth, reached its maximum greatness 
during the period of the Crusades (twelfth century), and passed 
out of existence by the sixteenth. The period of the Crusades 
was the heroic age of chivalry. The system of education which 
gradually developed for the children of the nobility may be 
briefly described as follows: 

I. Page. Up to the age of seven or eight the youth was trained 
at home, by his mother. He played to develop strength, was 
taught the meaning of obedience, trained in politeness and cour- 
tesy, and his rehgious education was begun. After this, usually 
at seven, he was sent to the court of some other noble, usually his 
father's superior in the feudal scale, though in case of kings and 
feudal lords of large importance the children remained at home 
and were trained in the palace school. From seven to fourteen 
the boy was known as a page. He was in particular attached to 
some lady, who supervised his education in religion, music, cour- 
tesy, gallantry, the etiquette of love and honor, and taught him 
to play chess and other games. He was usually taught to read 
and write the vernacular language, and was sometimes given a 
little instruction in reading Latin. To the lord he rendered much 



SCHOOLS AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 89 



personal service such as messenger, servant at meals, and atten- 
tion to guests. By the men he was trained in running, boxing, 
wrestling, riding, swimming, and the use of light weapons. 

2. Squire. At fourteen or fifteen he became a squire. While 
continuing to serve his lady, with whom he was still in company, 
and continuing to render personal service in the castle, the squire 
became in particular the personal servant and bodyguard of the 
lord or knight. He was in a sense a valet for him, making his bed, 
caring for his clothes, helping 
him to dress, and looking 
after him at night and when 
sick. He also groomed his 
horse, looked after his weap- 
ons, and attended and pro- 
tected him on the field of 
combat or in battle. He him- 
self learned to hunt, to handle 
shield and spear, to ride in 
armor, to meet his opponent, 
and to fight with sword and 
battle-axe. As he approached 
the age of twenty-one, he 
chose his lady-love, who was 
older than he and who might 
be married, to whom he swore 
ever to be devoted, even 
though he married some one 
else. He also learned to 
rhyme, to make songs, sing, 

dance, play the harp, and observe the ceremonials of the Church. 
Girls were given this instruction along with the boys, but natur- 
ally their training placed its emphasis upon household duties, 
service, good manners, conversational ability, music, and religion. 

3. Knight. At twenty-one the boy was knighted, and of this 
the Church made an impressive ceremonial. After fasting, con- 
fession, a night of vigil in armor spent at the altar in holy medita- 
tion, and communion in the morning, the ceremony of dubbing 
the squire a knight took place in the presence of the court. He 
gave his sword to the priest, who blest it upon the altar. He then 
took the oath "to defend the Church, to attack the wicked, to 
respect the priesthood, to protect women and the poor, to pre- 




FiG. 19. A Squire being knighted 

(From an old manuscript) 



90 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



serve the country in tranquillity, and to shed his blood, even to 
its last drop, in behalf of his brethren." The priest then returned 
him the sword which he had blessed, charging him ''to protect 
the widows and orphans, to restore and preserve the desolate, to 
revenge the wronged, and to confirm the virtuous." He then 
knelt before his lord, who, drawing his own sword and holding it 
over him, said: ''In the name of God, of our Lady, of thy patron 
Saint, and of Saint Michael and Saint George, I dub thee knight; 
be brave (touching him with the sword on one shoulder), be bold 
(on the other shoulder), and loyal (on the head)." 

The chivalric ideals. Such, briefly stated, was the education 
of chivalry. The cathedral and monastery schools not meeting 
the needs of the nobihty, the castle school was 
evolved. There was little that was intellectual 
about the training given — few books, and no 
training in Latin. Instead, the native language 
was emphasized, and squires in England fre- 
quently learned to speak French. It was. essen- 
tially an education for secular ends, and pre- 
pared not only for active participation in the 
feuds and warfare of the time, but also for the 
Seven Perfections of the Middle Ages: (i) Rid- 
ing, (2) Swimming, (3) Archery, (4) Fencing, 
(5) Hunting, (6) Whist or Chess, and (7) Rhym- 
ing. It also represents the first type of school- 
ing in the Middle Ages designed to prepare for 
life here, rather than hereafter. For the no- 
bility it was a discipline, just as the Seven Lib- 
eral Arts was a discipline for the monks and 
clergy. Out of it later on was evolved the edu- 
cation of a gentleman as distinct from that of 
a scholar. 

That such training had a civilizing effect on 
the nobility of the time cannot be doubted. 
Through it the Church exercised a restraining 
and civilizing influence on a rude, quarrelsome, and impetuous 
people, who resented restraints and who had no use for intel- 
lectual discipline. It developed the ability to work together for 
common ends, personal loyalty, and a sense of honor in an age 
when these were much-needed traits, and the ideal of a life of 
regulated service in place of one of lawless gratification was set 




Fig. 20. 
A Knight of the 
Time OF THE First 

Crusade 

(From a manuscript 

in the British 

Museum) 



SCHOOLS AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 91 

up. What monasticism had done for the religious life in digni- 
fying labor and service, chivalry did for secular life. The Ten 
Commandments of chivalry, (i) to pray, (2) to avoid sin, (3) to 
defend the Church, (4) to protect widows and orphans, (5) to 
travel, (6) to wage loyal war, (7) to fight for his Lady, (8) to de- 
fend the right, (9) to love his God, and (10) to Hsten to good and 
true men, while not often followed, were valuable precepts to 
uphold in that age and time. In the great Crusades movement 
of the twelfth century the Church consecrated the military 
prowess and restless energy of the nobihty to her service, but 
after this wave had passed chivalry became formal and stilted 
and rapidly declined in importance (R. 80). 

4. Characteristics of mediceval education 

Foundations laid for a new order. The education which we 
have just described covers the period from the time of the down- 
fall of Rome to the twelfth or the thirteenth century. It repre- 
sents what the Church evolved to replace that which it and the 
barbarians had destroyed. Meager as it still was, after seven or 
eight centuries of effort, it nevertheless presents certain clearly 
marked lines of development. The beginnings of a new Christian 
civilization among the tribes which had invaded and overrun the 
old Roman Empire are evident, and, toward the latter part of the 
Middle Ages, we note the development of a number of centers of 
learning (R. 71) and the beginnings of that specialization of knowl- 
edge (church doctrine, classical learning, music, logic and ethics, 
theology), at different church and monastery schools, which prom- 
ised much for the future of learning. We also notice, and will 
see the same evidence in the following chapter, the beginnings 
of a class of scholarly men, though the scholarship is very limited 
in scope and along lines thoroughly approved by the Church. 

In education proper, in the sense that we understand it, the 
schools provided were still for a very limited class, and secondary 
rather than elementary in nature. They were intended to meet 
the needs of .an institution rather than of a people, and to prepare 
those who studied in them for service...to that institution. That 
institution, too, had concentrated its efforts on preparing its mem- 
bers for life in another world, and not for life or service in this. 
There were as yet no independent schools or scholars, the monks 
and clergy represented the one learned class, Theology was the 
one professional study, the ability to read and write was not 



92 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

regarded by noble or commoner as of any particular importance, 
and all book knowledge was in a language which the people did 
not understand when they heard it and could not read. Society 
was as yet composed of three classes — feudal warriors, who 
spent their time in amusements or fighting, and who had evolved 
a form of knightly training for their children; privileged priests 
and monks and nuns, who controlled all book learning and oppor- 
tunities for professional advancement; and the great mass of 
working peasants, engaged chiefly in agriculture, and belonging 
to their protecting lord. 

For these peasants there was as yet no education aside from" 
what the Church gave through her watchful oversight and her 
rehgious services (R. 8i), and but little leisure, freedom, wealth, 
security, or economic need to make such education possible or 
desirable. Moreover, the other-worldly attitude of the Church 
made such education seem unnecessary. It was still the educa- 
tion of a few for institutional purposes, though here and there, 
by the close of the twelfth century, the Church was beginning to 
urge its members to provide some education for their children 
(R. 82), and the world was at last getting ready for the evolution 
of the independent scholar, and soon would be ready for the 
evolution of schools to meet secular needs. 

Repressive attitude of the mediaeval Church. The great work 
of the Church during this period, as we see it to-day, was to assim- 
ilate and sufficiently civilize the barbarians to make possible a 
new civilization, based on knowledge and reason rather than force. 
To this end the Church had interposed her authority against bar- 
barian force, and had slowly won the contest. Almost of neces- 
sity the Church had been compelled to insist upon her way, and 
this type of absolutism in church government had been extended 
to most other matters. The Bible, or rather the interpretations 
of it which church councils, popes, bishops, and theological writ- 
ers had made, became authoritative, and disobedience or doubt 
became sinful in the eyes of the Church. The Scriptures were 
made the authority for everything, and interpretations the most 
fantastic were made of scriptural verses. Unquestioning belief 
was extended to many other matters, with the result that tales 
the most wonderful were recounted and believed. To question, 
to doubt, to disbelieve — these were among the deadly sins of 
the early Middle Ages. This attitude of mind undoubtedly had 
its value in assimilating and civilizing the barbarians, and prob- 



SCHOOLS AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 93 

ably was a necessity at the time, but it was bad for the future of 
the Church as an institution, and utterly opposed to scientific 
inquiry and intellectual progress. 

This authoritative and repressive attitude of the Church ex- 
pressed itself in many ways. The teaching of the period is an 
excellent example of this influence. The instruction in the so- 
called Seven Liberal Arts remained unchanged throughout a 
period of half a dozen centuries — so much accumulated knowl- 
edge passed on as a legacy to succeeding generations. It repre- 
sented mere instruction; not education. Not until the world 
could shake off this mediaeval attitude toward scientific inquiry 
and make possible honest doubt was any real intellectual progress 
possible. 

The first teacher's certificates and school supervision. Toward 
the latter part of the period under consideration in this chapter 
an interesting development in church school administration took 
place. As the cathedral and song schools increased assistant 
teachers were needed, and the scholasticus and precentor gradually 
withdrew from instruction and became the supervisors of instruc- 
tion, or rather the principals of their respective schools. As song 
or parish schools were established m the parishes of the diocese 
teachers for these were needed, and the scholasticus and precentor 
extended their authority and supervision over these, just as the 
Bishop had done much earlier (p. 53) over the training and 
appointment of priests. By_^i^jo_weJiaye, clearly evolved, the 
system of central supervision of the training of all teachers in the 
diucese through the issuing, for the first time in Europe, of licenses 
to teach (R. 83). The system was finally put into legal form by 
a decree adopted by a general council of the Church at Rome, in 
1 1 79, which required that the scholasticus ''should have authority 
to superintend all the schoolmasters of the diocese and grant them 
Hcenses without which none should presume to teach," and that 

nothing be exacted for licenses to teach ' ' issued by him , thus stop- 
ping the charging of fees for their issuance. The precentor, in a sim- 
ilar manner, claimed and often secured supervision of all elemen- 
tary, and especially all song-school instruction. Teachers were 
also required to take an oath of fealty and obedience (R. 84 b). 

As a result of centuries of evolution we thus find, by 1200, a 
limited but powerful church school system, with centrahzed con- 
trol and supervision of instruction, diocesan licenses to teach, and 
a curriculum adapted to the needs of the institution in control of 



94 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the schools. We also note the beginnings of secular instruction 
in the training of the nobihty for life's service, though even this 
is approved and sanctioned by the Church. The centralized 
religious control thus established continued until the nineteenth 
century, and still exists to a more or less important degree in the 
school systems of Italy, the old Austro-Hungarian States, Ger- 
many, England, and some other western nations. As we shall 
see later on, one of the big battles in the process of developing 
state school systems has come through the attempt of the State 
to substitute its own organization for this religious monopoly of 
instruction. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Oudine the instruction in an inner monastery school. 

2. Show how the mediaeval parish school naturally developed as an offshoot 
of the cathedral schools, and was supplemented later by the endowed 
chantry schools. 

3. What effect did the development of song-school instruction have on 
the instruction in the cathedral schools? 

4. Why was it difficult to develop good cathedral schools during the early 
Middle Ages? 

5. What does the fact that the few great textbooks were in use for so 
many centuries indicate as to the character of educational progress 
during the Middle Ages? 

6. Was the Church wise in adopting and sanctifying the education of 
chivalry? Why? 

7. What important contributions to world progress came out of chivalric 
education? 

8. What ideals and practices from chivalry have been retained and are 
still in use to-day? Does the Boy Scouts movement embody any of the 
chivalric ideas and training? 

9. Compare the education of the body by the Greeks and under chivalry. 

10. Compare the Athenian ephebic oath with the vows of chivalry. 

11. Picture the present world transferred back to a time when theology was 
the one profession. 

12. What educational theory, conscious or unconscious, formed the basis 
for mediaeval education and instruction? 

13. Explain why the Church, after six or seven centuries of effort, still pro- 
vided schools only for preparation for its own service. 

14. What does the lack of independent scholars during the Middle Ages indi- 
cate as to possible leisure? 

15. Contrast the purposes of mediaeval education and the education of to-day. 

16. When Greece and Rome offered no precedents, how did the Church come 
to so fully develop and control the education which was provided? 

17. Compare the supervisory work of a modern county superintendent with 
that of a scholasticus of a mediaeval cathedral. 



SCHOOLS AND INSTRUCTION PROVIDED 95 



SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

70. Leach: Song and Grammar Schools in England. 

71. MuUinger: The Episcopal and Monastic Schools. 

72. Statutes: The School at Salisbury Cathedral. 

73. Aldwincle: Foundation Grant for a Chantry School. 

74. Maurus: The Seven Liberal Arts. 

75. Leach: A Mediaeval Latin Colloquy. 

76. Quintilian: On the Importance of the Study of Grammar. 

77. Anglicus: The Elements, and the Planets. 

(a) Of the Elements. 

(6) Of Double Moving of the Planets. 

78. Cott: A Tenth Century Schoolmaster's Books. 

79. Archbishop of Cologne: The Truce of God. 

80. Gautier: How the Church used Chivalry. 

81. Draper: Educational Influences of the Church Services. 

82. Winchester Diocesan Council: How the Church urged that the Ele- 
ments of Religious Education be given. 

83. Lincoln Cathedral: Licenses required to teach Song. 

84. English Forms: Appointment and Oath of a Grammar-School Master. 

(a) Northallerton: Appointment of a master of Song and Grammar. 
(6) Archdeacon of Ely: Oath of a Grammar-School Master to. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

* Abelson, Paul. The Seven Liberal Arts. 

Addison, Julia de W. Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages. 
Besant, W. The Story of King Alfred. 

* Clark, J. W. The Care of Books. 

Davidson, Thomas. ''The Seven Liberal Arts"; in Educational Review, 

vol. II, pp. 467-73. (Also in his Aristotle.) 
Mombert, J. I. History of Charles the Great. 

* Mullinger, J. B. The Schools of Charles the Great. 
Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. i. 
Scheffel, Victor. Ekkehard. (Historical novel of monastic hfe.) 
Steele, Philip. Mediceval Lore. (Anglicus' Cyclopaedia.) 



4'^ 



CHAPTER VIII 



INFLUENCES TENDING TOWARD A REVIVAL OF 
LEARNING 

I. MOSLEM LEARNING FROM SPAIN 

Great absorptive power for learning. The original Arabians 
themselves were not a well-educated people. Before the time of 
Mohammed we have practically no records as to any education 
among them. When in their religious conquests they overran 
Syria, they came in contact with the survivals of that won- 
derful Greek civilization and learning, and this they absorbed 
with greatest avidity. 

Mohammedanism now came in contact with an educated peo- 
ple, as it did also in Babylonia (637), in Assyria (640), and in 
Egypt (642), and the need of a better statement of the somewhat 
crude faith now became evident. The same process now took 
place as had occurred earlier with Christianity. The Nestorian 
Christians and the Syrian monks became the scholars for the 
Mohammedans, and the Mohammedan faith was clothed in Greek 
forms and received a thorough tincturing of Greek philosophic 
thought. Within a century they had translated from Syriac into 
Arabic, or from the original Greek, much of the old Greek learning 
in philosophy, science, and medicine, and the cities of Syria, and 
in particular their capital, Damascus, became renowned for their 
learning. In 760 Bagdad, on the Tigris, was founded, and super- 
seded Damascus as the capital. Extending eastward, these people 
were soon busy absorbing Hindu mathematical knowledge, 
obtaining from them (c. 800) the so-called Arabic notation and 
algebra. 

They develop schools and advance learning. In 786 Haroun- 
al-Raschid became Caliph at Bagdad, and he and his son made 
it an intellectual center of first importance. In all the known 
world probably no city, not even Constantinople, during the 
latter part of the eighth century and most of the ninth, could vie 
with Bagdad as a center of learning. Basra, Kufa, and other 
eastern cities were also noted places. Schools were opened in 
connection with the mosques (churches), a university after the 
old Greek model was founded, a large library was organized, and 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL 



97 



an observatory was built. Large numbers of students thronged 
the city, learned Greeks and Jews taught in the schools, and a 
number of advances on the scientific work done by the Greeks 
were made. 

This eastern learning was now gradually carried to Spain by 
traveling Mohammedan scholars, and there the energy of con- 
quest was gradually turned to the development of schools and 
learning. By 900 a good civilization and intellectual life had 
been developed in Spain, and before 1000 the teaching in Spain, 
especially along Greek philosophical lines, had become sufficiently 
known to attract a few adventurous monks from Christian 
Europe. In Cordova, Granada, Toledo, and Seville strong 




The Moslem West 



The Moslem East 



Fig. 21. Showing Centers of Moslem Learning 



universities were developed, where Jews and Hellenized Moham- 
medans taught the learning of the East, and made further ad- 
vances in the sciences and mathematics. Physics, chemistry, 
astronomy, mathematics, physiology, medicine, and surgery 
were the great subjects of study. Greek philosophy also was 
taught. They developed schools and large libraries, taught 
geography from globes, studied astronomy in observatories, 
counted time by pendulum clocks, invented the compass and gun- 
powder, developed hospitals, and taught medicine and surgery 
in schools (R. 86). 

Their cities were equally noteworthy for their magnificent 
palaces, mosques, public baths, market-places, aqueducts, and 
paved and lighted streets — things unknown in Christian Europe 
for centuries to come (R. 85). It became fashionable for wealthy 
men to become patrons of learning, and to coUect large Hbraries 



98 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and place them at the disposal of scholars, thus revealing interests 
in marked contrast to those of the fighting nobility of Christian 
Europe. 

Their influence on western Europe. Western Europe of the 
tenth to the twelfth centuries presented a dreary contrast, in 
almost every particular, to the brilliant life of southern Spain. 
Just emerging from barbarism, it was still in an age of general 
disorder and of the simplest reHgious faith. The age of reason 
and of scientific experiment as a means of arriving at truth had 
not yet dawned, and would not do so for centuries to come. 
Monks and clerics, representing the one learned class, regarded 
this Moslem science as ''black art," and in consequence Europe, 
centuries later, had slowly to rediscover the scientific knowledge 
which might have been had for the taking. Only the book science 
of Aristotle would the Church accept, and even this only after 
some hesitation (Rs. 89, 90). 

Western Europe had, however, advanced far enough through 
the study of the Seven Liberal Arts to desire corrected and addi- 
tional texts of the earlier classical writers, particularly Aristotle, 
and also to be willing to accept some of the mathematical knowl- 
edge of these Saracens. It was here that the Moslem learning in 
Spain helped in the intellectual awakening of the rest of Europe. 
Adelhard, an English monk, studied at Cordova about 11 20, and 
took back with him some knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, and 
geometry. His Euclid was in general use in the universities by 
1300. Gerard of Cremona, in Lombardy (1114-1187), who 
studied at Toledo a little later, rendered a similar service for 
Italy. He also translated many works from the Arabic, includ- 
ing Ptolemy's Almagest, a book of astronomical tables, and Alha- 
zen's (Spanish scholar, c. iioo) book on Optics. Other monks 
studied in the Spanish cities during the twelfth century, a few 
of whom brought back translations of importance. 

What Europe obtained through Moslem sources which it prized 
most, though, was the commentary on Aristotle by Averroes and 
the works of Aristotle (R. 88). The list of the books of Aristotle 
in use in the mediaeval universities by 1300 (R. 87) reveals the 
great importance of the additions made. By the middle of the 
twelfth century Aristotle's Ethics, Metaphysics, Physics, and 
Psychology, as well as some of his minor works, had been trans- 
lated into Latin and were beginning to be made available for 
study. Western Europe also was ready to use the Arabic (Hindu) 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL 99 

system of notation, the elements of algebra, Euclid's geometry, 
and Ptolemy's work on the motion of the heavens. These con- 
tributions western Europe was ready for; the larger scientific 
knowledge of the Saracens, their pharmacopoeias, dictionaries, 
cyclopaedias, histories, and biographies, it was not yet ready to 
receive. 

One other influence crept in from these peoples which was of 
large future importance — the music and light literature and love 
songs of Spain. There had been developed in this sunny land a 
life of light gayety, chivalrous gallantry, elegant courtesies, and 
poetic and musical charm, and this gradually found its way across 
the Pyrenees. At first it affected Provence and Languedoc, in 
southern France, then Sicily and Italy, and finally the gay con- 
tagion of lute and mandolin and love songs spread throughout all 
western Europe. A race of troubadours and minnesingers arose, 
singing in the vernacular, traveling about the country, and being 
entertained in castle halls. 

Lordlyng listneth to my tale 

Which is merryr than the nightengale 

won admission at any castle gate. "Out of these genial but not 
orthodox beginnings the polite literature of modem Europe 
arose. '^ 

II. THE RISE OF SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY 
The eleventh century a turning-point. By the end of the 
eleventh century a distinct turning-point had been reached in 
the struggle to save civilization from perishing. From this time 
on it was clear that the battle had been won, and that a new 
Christian civilization would in time arise in western Europe. 
Much still remained to be done, and centuries of effort would be 
required, but the Church, almost for the first time in more than 
six hundred years, felt that it could now pause to organize and 
systematize its faith. The invasions and destruction of the 
Northmen had at last ceased, the Mohammedan conquests were 
over, almost the last of the Germanic tribes in Europe had settled 
down and had accepted Christianity, and the fighting nobility 
of Europe were being held somewhat in restraint by the might 
of the Church, the "Truce of God" (R. 79), and the softening 
influence of chivalric education (R. 80). There were many evi- 
dences, too, by the end of the eleventh century, that the western 
Christian world, after the long intellectual night, was soon to 



lOO A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION. 

awaken to a new intellectual life. The twelfth century, in par- 
ticular, was a period when it was evident that some new leaven 
was at work. 

Up to about the close of the eleventh century western Europe 
had been living in an age of simple faith. The Christian world 
everywhere lay under "a veil of faith, illusion, and childish pre- 
possession." The mysteries of Christianity and the many incon- 
sistencies of its teachings and beliefs were accepted with childlike 
docility, and the Church had felt little call to organize, to syste- 
matize, or to explain. 

Rise of the spirit of inquiry. As the cathedral schools grew in 
importance as teaching institutions, and came to have many 
teachers and students, a few of them became noted as places 
where good instruction was imparted and great teachers were to 
be found. Canterbury in England, Paris and Chartres in France, 
and several of the cities in northern Italy early were noted for 
the quahty of their instruction. The great teachers and the keen- 
est students of the time were to be found in the cathedral schools 
in these places, and the monastic schools now lost their earlier 
importance as teaching institutions. By the twelfth century they 
had been completely superseded as important teaching centers 
by the rapidly developing cathedral schools. To these more 
important cathedral schools students now came from long dis- 
tances to study under some noted teacher. 

The rise of scholastic theology. The Church, in a very intelli- 
gent and commendable manner, prepared to meet and use this 
new spirit in the organization, systematization, and restatement 
of its faith and doctrine, and the great era of Scholasticism now 
arose. During the latter part of the twelfth and in the thirteenth 
century Scholasticism was at its height; after that, its work being 
done, it rapidly declined as an educational force, and the new 
universities inherited the spirit which had given rise to its labors. 

With the new emphasis now placed on reasoning, Dialectic or 
Logic superseded Grammar as the great subject of study, and 
logical analysis was now applied to the problems of religion. The 
Church adopted and guided the movement, and the schools of 
the time turned their energy into directions approved by it. 
Aristotle also was in time adopted by the Church, after the trans- 
lation of his principal works had been effected (Rs. 87, 90), and 
his philosophy was made a bulwark for Christian doctrine through- 
out the remainder of the Middle Ages. For the next four centu- 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL loi 

ries Aristotle thoroughly dominated all philosophic thinking. 
The great development and use of logical analysis now produced 
many keen and subtle minds, who worked intensively a narrow 
and limited field of thought. The result was a thorough reorgani- 
zation and restatement of the theology of the Church. 

Results of their work. The work of the Schoolmen was to 
organize and present in systematic and dogmatic form the teach- 
ings of the Church (R. 92). This they did exceedingly well, and 
the result was a thorough organization of Theology as a teaching 
subject. They did little to extend knowledge, and nothing at all 
to apply it to the problems of nature and man. Their work was 
abstract and philosophical instead, dealing wholly with theolog- 
ical questions. The purpose was to lay down principles, and to 
offer a training in analysis, comparison, classification, and deduc- 
tion which would prepare learned and subtle defenders of the faith 
of the Church. So successful were the Schoolmen in their efforts 
that instruction in Theology was raised by their work to a new 
position of importance, and a new interest in theological scholar- 
ship and general learning was awakened which helped not a little 
to deflect many strong spirits from a life of warfare to a life of 
study. They made the problems of learning seem much more 
worth while, and their work helped to create a more tolerant 
attitude toward the supporters of either side of debatable ques- 
tions by revealing so clearly that there are two sides to every 
question. This new learning, new interest in learning, and new 
spirit of tolerance the rising universities inherited. 

III. LAW AND MEDICINE AS NEW STUDIES 

The old Roman cities. The old Roman Empire, it will be re- 
membered, came to be largely a collection of provincial cities. 
These were the centers of Roman civilization and culture. After 
the downfall of the governing power of Rome, the great highways 
were no longer repaired, brigandage became common, trade and 
intercourse largely ceased, and the provincial cities which were 
not destroyed in the barbarian invasions declined in population 
and number, passing under the control of their bishops who long 
ruled them as feudal lords. During the long period of disorder 
many of the old Roman cities entirely disappeared (R. 49). Only 
in Italy, and particularly in northern Italy, did these old cities 
retain anything of their earlier municipal life, or anything worth 
mentioning of their former industry and commerce. But even 



I02 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

here they lost most of their earlier importance as centers of cul- 
ture and trade, becoming merely ecclesiastical towns. After the 
death of Charlemagne, the break-up of his empire, and the insti- 
tution of feudal conditions, the cities and towns declined still more 
in importance, and few of any size remained. 

In Italy feudalism never attained the strength it did in northern 
Europe. Throughout all the early Middle Ages the cities there 
retained something of their old privileges, though ruled by prince- 
bishops residing in them. They also retained something of the 
old Roman civilization, and Roman legal usages and some knowl- 
edge of Roman law never quite died out. In other respects they 
much resembled mediaeval cities elsewhere. 

The Italian cities revive the study of Roman law. As was 
stated above, Roman legal usages and some knowledge of Roman 
law had never quite died out in these Italian cities. But, while 
regarded with reverence, the law was not much understood, little 
study was given to it, and important parts of it were neglected 
and forgotten. The struggle with the ruling bishops in the second 
half of the eleventh century, and the discussions which arose dur- 
ing the investiture conflict, caused new attention to be given to 
legal questions, and both the study of Roman (civil) and Church 
(canon) law were revived. The Italian cities stood with the 
Papacy iil the struggles with the German kings, and, in 1167, 
those in the Valley of the Po formed what was known as the 
Lombard League for defense. Under the pressure of German 
oppression they now began a careful study of the known Roman 
law in an effort to discover some charter, edict, or grant of power 
upon which they could base their claim for independent legal 
rights. The result was that the study of Roman law was given 
an emphasis unknown in Italy since the days of the old Empire. 
What had been preserved during the period of disorder at last 
came to be understood, additional books of the law were discov- 
ered, and men suddenly awoke to a realization that what had 
been before considered as of little value actually contained much 
that was worth studying, as well as many principles of import- 
ance that were applicable to the conditions and problems of the 
time. 

The great student and teacher of law of the period was Imerius 
of Bologna (c. 1070-1137), who began to lecture on the Code and 
the Institutes of Justinian about mo to 1115, and soon attracted 
large numbers of students to hear his interpretations. Law now 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL 103 

ceased to be a part of Rhetoric and became a new subject of study, 
with a body of material large enough to occupy a student for sev- 
eral years. This was an event of great intellectual significance. A 
new study was now evolved which offered great possibilities for 
intellectual activity and the exercise of the critical faculty, while 
at the same time showing veneration for authority. Law was 
thus placed alongside Theology as a professional subject, and the 
evolution of the professional lawyer from the priest was now for 
the first time made possible. 

Canon law also organized as a subject of study. Inspired by 
the revival of the study of civil law, a monk of Bologna, Gratian 
by name, set himself to make a compilation of all the Church 
canons which had been enacted since the Council of Nicaea (325) 
formulated the first twenty (p. 51), and of the rules for church 
government as laid down by the church authorities. This he 
issued in textbook form, about 1142, under the title of Decretum 
Gratiani. So successful were his efforts that his compilation was 
"one of those great textbooks that take the world by storm." It 
did for canon (church) law what the rediscovery of the Justinian 
Code had done for civil law; that is, it organized canon law as a 
new and important teaching subject. Canon Law was thus sepa- 
rated from Theology and added to Civil Law as another new sub- 
ject of study for both theological and legal students, and the two^ 
subjects of Canon and Civil Law came to constitute the work of the 
law faculties in the universities which soon arose in western Europe. 

The beginnings of medical study. The Greeks had made some 
distinct progress in the beginnings of the study of disease. .Aris- 
totle had given some anatomical knowledge in his writings on ani- 
mals, and had theorized a little about the functions of the human 
body. The real founder of medical science, though, was Hippo- 
crates, of the island of Cos (c. 460-367 b.c), a contemporary of 
Plato. . He was the first writer on the subject who attempted to 
base the practice of the healing art on careful observation and sci- 
entific principles. He substituted scientific reason for the wrath 
of offended deities as the causes of disease, and tried to offer proper 
remedies in place of sacrifices and prayers to the gods for cures. 
His descriptions of diseases were wonderfully accurate, and his 
treatments ruled medical practice for ages. He knew, however, 
little as to anatomy. Another Greek writer, Galen (131-201 
A.D.), wrote extensively on medicine and left an anatomical ac- 
count of the human body which was unsurpassed for more than a 



104 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

thousand years. His work was known and used by the Saracens. 
During the early Middle Ages the Greek medical knowledge 
practically disappeared, and in its place came the Christian the- 
ories of Satanic influence, diabolic action, and divine punishment 
for sin. Correspondingly the cures were prayers at shrines and 
repositories of sacred relics and images, which were found all over 
Europe, and to which the injured or fever-stricken peasants hied 
themselves to make offerings and to pray, and then hope for a 
miracle. 

Toward the middle of the eleventh century ancient Salerno, 
a small city delightfully situated on the Italian codst thirty-four 
miles south of Naples, began to attain some reputation as a health 
resort. In part this was due to the climate and in part to its 
mineral springs. Southern Italy had, more than any other part 
of western Europe, retained touch with old Greek thought. The 
works of Hippocrates and Galen had been preserved there, the 
monks at Monte Cassino had made some translations, and some- 
time toward the middle of the eleventh century the study of the 
Greek medical books was revived here. The Mohammedan med- 
ical work by Avicenna also early became known at Salerno in 
translation. About 1065 Constantine of Carthage, a converted 
Jew and a learned monk, who had traveled extensively in the East 
• and who had been forced to flee from his native city because of a 
suspicion of "black art," began to lecture at Salerno on the Greek 
and Mohammedan medical works and the practice of the medical 
art. In 1099 Robert, Duke of Normandy, returning from the 
First Crusade, stopped here to be cured of a wound, and he and 
his knights later spread the fame of Salerno aU over Europe. 
The result was the revival of the study of Medicine in the West, 
and Salerno developed into the first of the medical schools of 
Europe. Montpellier, in southern France, also became another 
early center for the study of Medicine, drawing much of its med- 
ical knowledge from Spain. Another new subject of professional 
study was now made possible, and Faculties of Medicine were in 
time organized in most of the universities as they arose. The 
instruction, though, was chiefly book instruction, Galen being the 
great textbook until the seventeenth century. 

IV. OTHER NEW INFLUENCES AND MOVEMENTS 
The Crusades. Perhaps the most romantic happenings during 
the Middle Ages were that series of adventurous expeditions to 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL 105 

the then Far East, undertaken by the kings and knights of western 
Europe in an attempt to reclaim the Holy Land from the infidel 
Turks, who in the eleventh century had pushed in and were 
persecuting Christian pilgrims journeying to Jerusalem. In 
1095 Pope Urban, in a stirring address to the Council of Clermont 
(France), issued a call to the lords, knights, and foot soldiers of 
western Christendom to cease destroying their fellow Christians 
in private warfare, and to turn their strength of arms against the 
infidel and rescue the Holy Land. The journey was to take the 
place of penance for sin, many special privileges were extended 
to those who went, and those who died on the journey or in battle 
with the infidels were promised entrance into heaven. To many 
nobles and peasants, filled with a desire for adventure and a sense 
of personal sin, no surer way of satisfying either was to be found 
than the long pilgrimage to the Saviour's tomb. In France and 
England the call met with instant response. Unfortunately for 
the future of civilization, the call met with but small response 
from the nobles of German lands. 

Results of the Crusades on western Europe. In a sense the 
Crusades were an outward manifestation of the great change in 
thinking and ideals which had begun sometime before in western 
Europe. They were at once both a sign and a cause of further 
change. The old isolation was at last about to end, and inter- 
communication and some common ideas and common feelings 
were being brought about. Both those who went and those who 
remained at home were deeply stirred by the movement. Chris- 
tendom as a great international community, in which all alike 
were interested in a common ideal and in a common fight against 
the infidel, was a new idea now dawning upon the mass of the 
people, whereas before it had been but little understood. 

The travel to distant lands, the sight of cities of wealth and 
power, and the contact with peoples decidedly superior to them- 
selves in civilization, not only excited the imagination and led to 
a broadening of the minds of those who returned, but served as 
well to raise the general level of intelligence in western Europe. 
Some new knowledge also was brought back, but that was not at 
the time of great importance. The principal gain came in the 
elimination forever of thousands of quarreling, fighting noble- 
men, thus giving the kingly power a chance to consolidate hold- 
ings and begin the evolution of modem States; in the marked 
change of attitude toward the old problems; in the awakening of 



io6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

a new interest in the present world; in the creation of new inter- 
ests and new desires among the common people; in the awakening 
of a spirit of rehgious unity and of national consciousness; and 
especially in the awakening of a new intellectual life, which soon 
found expression in the organization of universities for study and 
in more extensive travel and geographical exploration than the 
world had known since the days of ancient Rome. The greatest 
of all the results, however, came through the revival of trade, 
commerce, manufacturing, and industry in the rising cities of 
western Europe, with the consequent evolution of a new and im- 
portant class of merchants, bankers, and craftsmen, who formed 
a new city class and in time developed a new system of training 
for themselves and their children. 

The revival of city life. The old cities of central and northern 
Italy, as was stated above (p. 102), continued through the early 
Middle Ages as places of some little local importance. In the 
eleventh century they overthrew in large part the rule of their 
Prince-Bishops, and became little City-Republics, much after the 
old Greek model. Outside of Italy almost the only cities not 
destroyed during the period of the barbarian invasions were the 
episcopal cities, that is cities which were the residences of bishops. 

After about the year 1000 a revival of something like city life 
begins to be noticeable here and there in the records of the time 
(R. 94 a), and by iioo these signs begin to manifest themselves 
in many places and lands. By 1200 the cities of Europe were 
numerous, though small, and their importance in the life of the 
times was rapidly increasing (R. 94 b). 

The rise of a city class. As the mediaeval towns increased in 
size and importance the inhabitants, being- human, demanded 
rights. Between iioo and 1200 there were frequent revolts of 
the people of the mediaeval towns against their feudal overlord, 
and frequent demands were made for charters granting privileges 
to the towns. Sometimes these insurrections were put down with 
a bloody hand. Sometimes, on the contrary, the overlord granted 
a charter of rights, willingly or unwillingly, and freed the people 
from obligation to labor on the lands in return for a fixed money 
payment. Sometimes the king himself granted the inhabitants a 
charter by way of curbing the power of the local feudal lord or 
bishop. The towns became exceedingly skillful in playing off 
lord against bishop, and the king against both. In England, 
Flanders, France, and Germany some of the towns had become 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL 107 

wealthy enough to purchase their freedom and a charter at some 
time when their feudal overlord was particularly in need of money. 
These charters, or birth certificates for the towns, were carefully 
drawn and officially sealed documents of great value, and were 
highly prized as evidences of local hberty. The document created 
a "free town," and gave to the inhabitants certain specified rights 
as to self-government, the election of magistrates — aldermen, 
mayor, burgomaster — the levying and payment of taxes, and 
the military service to be rendered. Before the evolution of 
strong national governments these charters created hundreds of 
what were virtually little City-States throughout Europe (R. 95). 
In these towns a new estate or class of people was now created 
(R. 96) , in between the ruling bishops and lords on the one hand 
and the peasants tilling the land on the other. These were the 
citizens — freemen, bourgeoisie, burghers. Out of this new class 
of city dwellers new social orders — merchants, bankers, trades- 
men, artisans, and craftsmen — in time arose, and these new 
orders soon demanded rights and obtained some form of educa- 
tion for their children. The guild or apprenticeship education 
which early developed in the cities to meet the needs of artisans 
and craftsmen (R. 99), and the burgh or city schools of Europe, 
which began to develop in the thirteenth and fourteenth centu- 
ries, were the educational results of the rise of cities and the 
evolution of these new social classes. The time would soon be 
ripe for the mysteries of learning to be passed somewhat farther 
down the educational pyramid, and new classes in society would 
begin the mastery of its symbols. 
h Education for these new social classes. With the evolution of 
these new social classes an extension of education took place 
through the formation of guilds. The merchants of the Middle 
Ages traded, not as individuals, nor as subjects of a State which 
protected them, for there were as yet no such States, but as 
members of the guild of merchants of their town, or as members 
of a trading company. Later, towns united to form trading con- 
federations, of which the Hanseatic League of northern Germany 
was a conspicuous example. These burgher merchant guilds 
became wealthy and important socially; they were chartered by 
kings and given trading privileges analogous to those of a modern 
corporation (R. 95); they elbowed their way into affairs of State, 
and in time took over in large part the city governments; they 
obtained education for themselves, and fought with the church 



io8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

authorities for the creation of independent burgh schools; they 
began to read books, and books in the vernacular began to be 
written for them; they in time vied with the clergy and the 
nobiHty in their patronage of learning; they everywhere stood 
with the kings and princes to compel feudal lords to stop warfare 
and plundering and to submit to law and order; and they enter- 
tained royal personages and drew nobles, clergy, and gentry into 
their honorary membership, thus serving as an important agency 
in breaking down the social-class exclusiveness of the Middle Ages. 
In these guilds, which were self-governing bodies debating ques- 
tions and deciding policies and actions, much elementary political 
training was given their members which proved of large impor- 
tance at a later time (R. 96). 

In the same way the craft guilds rendered a large educational 
service to the small merchant and worker, as they provided the 
technical and social education of such during the later period of 
the Middle Ages and in early modern times, and protected their 
members from oppression in an age when oppression was the rule. 
With the revival of trade and industry craft guilds arose all over 
western Europe. One of the first of these was the candle-makers' 
guild, organized at Paris in 1061. Soon after we find large num- 
bers of guilds — masons, shoemakers, harness-makers, bakers, 
smiths, wool-combers, tanners, saddlers, spurriers, weavers, gold- 
smiths, pewterers, carpenters, leather-workers, cloth-workers, 
pinners, fishmongers, butchers, barbers — all organized on much 
the same plan. These were the working-men's fraternities or 
labor unions of mediaeval Europe. Each trade or craft became 
organized as a city guild, composed of the "masters," "journey- 
men" (paid workmen), and "apprentices." The great mediaeval 
document, a charter of rights guaranteeing protection, was usu- 
ally obtained. The guild for each trade laid down rules for the 
number and training of apprentices, the conditions under which 
a "journeyman" could become a "master," rules for conducting 
the trade, standards to be maintained in workmanship, prices to 
be charged, and dues and obligations of members (R. 97). They 
supervised work in their craft, cared for the sick, buried the dead, 
and looked after the widows and orphans. Often they provided 
one or more priests of their own to minister to the families of their 
craft, and gradually the custom arose of having the priest also 
teach something of the rudiments of religion and learning to the 
children of the members. In time money and lands were set 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL 109 

aside or left for such purposes, and a form of chantry school, 
which later evolved into a regular school, often with instruction 
in higher studies added, was created for the children of members 
of the guild (R. 98). 

Apprenticeship education. For centuries after the revival of 
trade and industry all manufacturing was on a small scale, and 
in the home-industry stage. There was, of course, no machinery, 
and only the simple tools known from ancient times were used. 
In a first-floor room at the back, master, journeymen, and appren- 
tices working together made the articles which were sold by the 
master or the master's wife and daughter in the room in front. 
The manufacturer and merchant were one. Apprentices were 
bound to a master for a term of years (R. 99), often paying for the 
training and education to be received, and the master boarded and 
lodged both the apprentices and the paid workmen in the family 
rooms above the shop and store. 

The form of apprenticeship education and training which thus 
developed, from an educational point of view, forms for us the 
important feature of the history of these craft guilds. With the 
subdivision of labor and the development of new trades the craft- 
guild idea was extended to the new occupations, and a steady 
stream of rural labor flowing to the towns was absorbed by them 
and taught the elements of social usages, self-government, and 
the mastery of a trade. Throughout all the long period up to the 
nineteenth century this apprenticeship education in a trade and 
in self-government constituted almost the entire formal educa- 
tion the worker with his hands received. The sons of the bar- 
barian invaders, as well as their knightly brothers, at last were 
busy learning the great lessons of industry, cooperation, and per- 
sonal loyalty. Here begins, for western Europe, "the nobility of 
labor — the long pedigree of toil. ' ' So well in fact did this appren- 
tice system of training and education meet the needs of the time 
that it persisted, as was said above, well into the nineteenth 
century (Rs. 200, 201, 242, 243), being displaced only by modem 
power machinery and systematized factory methods. During 
the later Middle Ages and^in modem times it rendered an impor- 
tant educational service; in the later nineteenth century it became 
such an obstacle to educational and industrial progress that it has 
had to be supplemented or replaced by systematic vocational 
education. 

Influence of these new movements. We thus see, by the end 



no A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of the twelfth century, a number of new influences in western 
Europe which point to an intellectual awakening and to the rise 
of a new educated class, separate from the monks and clergy on 
the one hand or the nobility on the other, and to the awakening 
of Europe to a new attitude toward life. Saracen learning, filter- 
ing across from Spain, had added materially to the knowledge 
Europe previously ha.d, and had stimulated new intellectual inter- 
ests. Scholasticism had begun its great work of reorganizing and 
systematizing theology, which was destined to free philosophy, 
hitherto regarded as a dangerous foe or a suspected ally, from 
theology and to remake entirely the teaching of the subject. 
Civil and canon law had been created as wholly new professional 
subjects, and the beginnings of the teaching of medicine had been 
made. Instead of the old Seven Liberal Arts and a very limited 
course of professional study for the clerical ofhce being the entire 
curriculum, and Theology the one professional subject, we now 
find, by the beginning of the thirteenth century, a number of new 
and important professional subjects of large future signihcance — 
subjects destined to break the monopoly of theological study and 
put an end to logistic hair-splitting. The next step in the history 
of education came in the development of institutions where think- 
ing and teaching could be carried on free from civil or ecclesiastical 
control, with the consequent rise of an independent learned class 
in western Europe. This came with the rise of the universities, 
to which we next turn, and out of which in time arose the future 
independent scholarship of Europe, America, and the world in 
general. 

We also discover a series of new movements, connected with 
the Crusades, the rise of cities, and the revival of trade and indus- 
try, all of which clearly mark the close of the dark period of the 
Middle Ages. We note, too, the evolution of new social classes 
— a new Estate — destined in time to eclipse in importance both 
priest and noble and to become for long the ruling classes of the 
modem world. We also note the beginnings of an important 
independent system of education for the hand-workers which 
sufficed until the days of steam, machinery, and the evolution of 
the factory system. The eleventh and twelfth centuries were 
turning-points of great significance in the history of our western 
civilization, and with the opening of the wonderful thirteenth 
century the western world is well headed toward a new life and 
modern ways of thinking. 



INFLUENCES TOWARD A REVIVAL iii 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is it that a strong reUgious control is never favorable to originality 
in thinking? 

2. Would it be possible for any people anywhere in the world to-day to 
make such advances as were made at Bagdad, in the late eighth and early 
ninth centuries, without such work permanently influencing the course 
of civiHzation and learning everywhere? To what is the difference due? 

3. What were the chief obstacles to Europe adopting at once the learning 
from Mohammedan Spain, instead of waiting centuries to discover this 
learning independently? 

4. Why did Aristotle's work seem of much greater value to the mediaeval 
scholar than the Moslem science? What are the relative values to-day? 

5. Why should the light literature of Spain be spoken of as a gay contagion? 
Did this Christian attitude toward fiction and poetry continue long? 

6. How did the fact that Dialectic (Logic) now became the great subject 
of study in itself denote a marked intellectual advance? What was the 
significance of the prominence of this study for the future of thinking? 

7. How do you explain the all-absorbing interest in scholasticism during 
the greater part of a century? 

8. State the significance, for the future, of the revival of the study of Roman 
law: (a) intellectually; (b) in shaping future civilization. 

9. How do you explain the Christian attitude toward disease, and the 
scientific treatment of it? Has that attitude entirely passed away? 
Illustrate. • 

10. Why was it such a good thing for the future of civilization in England 
and France that so many of its nobility perished in the Crusades? 

11. State a number of ways in which the Crusade movements had a beneficial 
effect on western Europe. 

12. Contrast a mediaeval guild and a modern labor union. A guild and a 
modern fraternal and benevolent society. 

13. Why did apprenticeship education continue so long with so little change, 
when it is now so rapidly being superseded? 

14. Does the rise of a new Estate in society indicate a period of slow or rapid 
change? Why is such an evolution of importance for education and 
civilization? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

785. Draper: The Moslem Civilization in Spain. 
\^86. Draper: Learning among the Moslems in Spain. 
07. Norton: Works of Aristotle known b}^ 1300. 

88. Averroes: On Aristotle's Greatness. 

89. Roger Bacon: How Aristotle was received at Oxford. 

90. Statutes: How Aristotle was received at Paris. 

(a) Decree of Church Council, 12 10 a.d. 

(b) Statutes of Papal Legate, 1215 a.ej. 

(c) Statutes of Pope Gregory, 1231 a.d. 

(d) Statutes of the Masters of Arts, 1254 a.d. 

91. Cousin: Abelard's Sic d Nan. 

(a) From the Introduction. 

(b) Types of Questions raised for Debate. 



112 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

92. Rashdall: The Great Work of the Schoolmen. 

93. Justinian: Preface to the Justinian Code, 

94. Giry and Reville: The Early Mediaeval Town. 

(a) To the Eleventh Century. 

(b) By the Thirteenth Century. 

95. Gross: An English Town Charter. 

96. London: Oath of a New Freeman in a Mediaeval Town. 

97. Riley: Ordinances of the White-Tawyers' Guild. 

98. State Report: School of the Guild of Saint Nicholas. 

99. England, 1396: A Mediaeval Indenture of Apprenticeship. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 

Ameer, Ali. A Short History of the Saracens. 
*Ashley, W. J. Introduction to English Economic History. 

Cutts, Edw. L. Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages. 
*Gautier, Leon. Chivalry. 
*Giry, A., and Reville, A. Emancipation of the Mediaeval Towns. 

Hibbert, F. A. Influence and Development of English Guilds. 
*Hume, M. A. S. The Spanish People. 
*Lavisse, Ernest. Mediaeval Commerce and Industry. 
*MacCabe, Jos. Peter Abelard. 
*Monro, D. C, and Sellery, G. E. Medieval Civilization. 

Poole, R. L. Illustrations of Mediceval Thought. 
*Rashdall, H. Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, vol. I. 

Routledge, R. Popular History of Science. 

Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. i. 

Scott, J. F. Historical Essays on Apprenticeship and Vocational Educa- 
tion. (England.) 
*Sedgwick, W. J., and Tyler, H. W. A Short History of Science. 

Taylor, H. C. The Mediceval Mind. 

Thorndike, Lynn. History of Mediceval Europe. 

Townsend, W. J. The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 

Evolution of the Studium Generate. In the preceding chapter 
we described briefly the new movement toward association 
which characterized the eleventh and the twelfth centuries — the 
municipal movement, the merchant guilds, the trade guilds, etc. 
These were doing for civil life what monasticism had earlier done 
for the religious life. They were collections of like-minded men, 
who united themselves into associations or guilds for mutual 
benefit, protection, advancement, and self-government within the 
limits of their city, business, trade, or occupation. This tendency 
toward association, in the days when state government was weak 
or in its infancy, was one of the marked features of the transition 
time from the early period of the Middle Ages, when the Church 
was virtually the State, to the later period of the Middle Ages, 
when the authority of the Church in secular matters was begin- 
ning to weaken, modem nations were beginning to form, and an 
interest in worldly affairs was beginning to replace the previous 
inordinate interest in the world to come. 

We also noted in the preceding chapters that certain cathe- 
dral and monastery schools, but especially the cathedral schools, 
stimulated by the new interest in Dialectic, were developing into 
much more than local teaching institutions designed to afford a 
supply of priests of some little education for the parishes of the 
bishopric. Once York and later Canterbury, in England, had 
had teachers who attracted students from other bishoprics. Paris 
had for long been a famous center for the study of the Liberal 
Arts and of Theology. Saint Gall had become noted for its music. 
Theologians coming from Paris (1167-68) had given a new im- 
petus to study among the monks at Oxford. A series of political 
events in northern Italy had given emphasis to the study of law 
in many cities, and the Moslems in Spain had stimulated the 
schools there and in southern France to a study of medicine and 
Aristotelian science. Rome was for long a noted center for study. 
Gradually these places came to be known as studia piihlica, or 
studia generalia, meaning by this a generally recognized place of 
study, where .lectures were open to any one, to students of all 
countries and of all conditions. Traveling students came to 



114 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

these places from afar to hear some noted teacher read and com- 
ment on the famous textbooks of the time (R. loi). 

The university evolution. The development of a university 
out of a cathedral or some other form of school represented, in 




Fig. 22. Showing Location of the Chief Universities founded 

BEFORE 1600 

the Middle Ages, a long local evolution. Universities were not 
founded then as they are to-day. A teacher of some reputation 
drew around him a constantly increasing body of students. 
Other teachers of ability, finding a student body already there, 
also *'set up their chairs" and began to teach. Other teachers 
and more students came. In this way a studium was created. 
About these teachers in time collected other university servants 
— ^'pedells, librarians, lower officials, preparers of parchment, 
scribes, illuminators of parchment, and others who serve it," as 
Count Rupert enumerated them in the Charter of Foundation 
granted, in 1386, to Heidelberg (R. 103). At Salerno, as we have 



THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 115 

already seen (p. 104), medical instruction arose around the work 
of Constantine of Carthage and the medicinal springs found in 
the vicinity. Students journeyed there from many lands, and 
licenses to practice the medical art were granted there as early 
as 1 137. At Bologna, we have also seen (p. 102), the work of 
Imerius and Gratian early made this a great center for the study 
of civil and canon law, and their pupils spread the taste for these 
new subjects throughout Europe. Paris for two centuries had 
been a center for the study of the Arts and of Theology, and a 
succession of famous teachers. 

The guild idea; early privileges. By the beginning of the 
thirteenth century both students and teachers had become so 
numerous, at a number of these studia generalia in western Europe, 
that they began to adopt the favorite mediaeval practice and 
organized themselves into associations, or guilds, for further 
protection from extortion and oppression and for greater freedom 
from regulation by the Church. They now sought and obtained 
additional privileges for themselves, and, in particular, the great 
mediaeval document — a charter of rights and privileges. As both 
teachers and students were for long regarded as clerici the 
charters were usually sought from the Pope, but in some cases 
they were obtained from the king. These, associations of schol- 
ars, or teachers, or both, ''born of the need of companionship 
which men who cultivate their intelligence feel," sought to per- 
form the same functions for those who studied and taught that 
the merchant and craft guilds were performing for their members. 
The ruling idea was association for protection, and to secure free- 
dom for discussion and study; the obtaining of corporate rights 
and responsibilities; and the organization of a system of appren- 
ticeship, based on study and developing through journeyman into 
mastership, as attested by an examination and the license to 
teach. In the rise of these teacher and student guilds we have 
the beginnings of the universities of western Europe, and their 
organization into chartered teaching groups (R. 100) was simply 
another phase of that great movement toward the association of 
like-minded men for worldly purposes which began to sweep over 
the rising cities in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. 

One of the most important privileges which the universities 
early obtained, and a rather singular one at that, was the right of 
cessatio, which meant the right to stop lectures and go on a strike 
as a means of enforcing a redress of grievances against either town 



Ii6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

or church authority (R. 107). This right was for long jealously 
guarded by the university, and frequently used to defend itself 
from the smallest encroachments on its freedom to teach, study, 
and discipline the members of its guild as it saw fit, and often the 
right not to discipline them at all. Often the cessatio was invoked 
on very trivial grounds, as in the case of the Oxford cessatio of 
1209 (R. 108), the Paris cessatio of 1229 (R. 109), and the numer- 
ous other cessationes which for two centuries repeatedly disturbed 
the continuity of instruction at Paris. 

Degrees in the guild. The most important of the university 
rights, however, was the right to examine and license its own 
teachers (R. no), and to grant the license to teach (Rs. in, 112). 
Founded as the universities were after the guild model, they were 
primarily places for the taking of apprentices in the Arts, devel- 
oping them into journeymen and masters, and certifying to their 
proficiency in the teaching craft. Their purpose at first was to 
prepare teachers, and the giving of instruction to students for 
cultural ends, or a professional training for practical use aside 
from teaching the subject, was a later development. 

Accordingly it came about in time that, after a number of years 
of study in the Arts under some master, a student was permitted 
to present himself for a test as to his ability to define words, 
determine the meaning of phrases, and read the ordinary Latin 
texts in Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic (the Trivium), to the satis- 
faction of other masters than his own. In England this test came 
to be known by the term determine. Its passage was equivalent 
to advancing from apprenticeship to the ranks of a j'oumeyman, 
and the successful candidate might now be permitted to assist the 
master, or even give some elementary instruction himself while 
continuing his studies. He now became an assistant or compan- 
ion, and by the fourteenth century was known as a baccalaureus, 
a term used in the Church, in chivalry, and in the guilds, and 
which meant a beginner. There was at first, though, no thought 
of establishing an examination and a new degree for the comple- 
tion of this first step in studies. The bachelor's degree was a 
later development, sought at first by those not intending to 
teach, and eventually erected into a separate degree. 

When the student had finally heard a sufficient number of 
courses, as required by the statutes of his guild, he might present 
himself for examination for the teaching license. This was a 
public trial, and took the form of a public disputation on some 



THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 



117 



stated thesis, in the presence of the masters, and against all 
comers. It was the student's ''masterpiece," analogous to the 
masterpiece of any other guild, and he submitted it to a jury of 
the masters of his craft. Upon his masterpiece being adjudged 
satisfactory, he also became a master in his craft, was now able 
to define and dispute, was formally admitted to the highest rank 
in the teaching guild, might have a seal, and was variously known 
as master, doctor, or professor, all of which were once synony- 
mous terms. If he wished to prepare himself for teaching one 
of the professional subjects he studied still further, usually for 
a number of years, in one of the professional faculties, and in time 
he was declared to be a Doctor of Law, or Medicine, or of The- 
ology. 

The teaching faculties. On the side of the students the uni- 
versity organization was by nations; on the side of the masters 
the organization was by ^aching subjects, and into what came 
to be known sls faculties. 

The Arts Faculty was the successor^oi the old cathedral-school 
instruction in the Seven Liberal Arts, and was found in practically 
all the universities. 
The Law Faculty em- 
braced civil and canon 
law, as worked out at 
Bologna. The Med- 
ical Faculty taught 
the knowledge of the 
medical art, as worked 
out at Salerno and 
Montpellier. The The- 
ological Faculty, the 
most important of the 
four, prepared learned 
men for the service of 
the Church, and was 
for some two cen- 
turies controlled by 
the scholastics. The 
Arts Faculty was preparatory to the other three. As Latin was 
the language of the classroom, and all the texts were Latin texts, 
a reading and speaking knowledge of Latin was necessary before 
coming to the university to study. 




Fig. 23. New College, at Oxford 

One of the oldest of the Oxford colleges, having been 
founded in 1379. The picture shows the chapel, clois- 
ters (consecrated in 1400), and a tall tower, once 
forming a part of the Oxford city walls. 



Ii8 A BRIEF HISTORY OP^ EDUCATION 

This was obtained from a study of the first of the Seven Arts 
— Grammar — in some monastery, cathedral, or other type of 
school. Thus a knowledge of Latin formed practically the sole 
requirement for admission to the mediaeval university, and con- 
tinued to be the chief admission requirement in our universities 
up to the nineteenth century (R. i86 a). In Europe it is still of 
great importance as a preparatory subject, but in South American 
countries it is not required at all. 

Very few of the universities, in the beginning, had all four of 
these faculties. The very nature of the evolution of the earlier 
ones precluded this. Thus Bologna had developed into a studium 
generate from its prominence in law, and was virtually constituted 
a university in 1158, but it did not add Medicine until 1316, or 
Theology until 1360. These four traditional faculties were well 
established by the fourteenth century, and continued as the 
typical form of university organization until modem times. With 
the great university development and the great multiplication of 
subjects of study which characterized the nineteenth century, 
many new faculties and schools and colleges have had to be 
created, particularly in the United States, in response to new 
modern demands. 

Methods of instruction. A very important reason why so 
long a period of study was required in each of the professional 
faculties, as well as in the Faculty of Arts, is to be found in the 
lack of textbooks and the methods of instruction foUowed. While 
the standard textbooks were becoming much more common, due 
to much copying and the long-continued use of the same texts, 
they were still expensive and not owned by many. To provide 
a loan collection of theological books for poor students we find, 
in 1 27 1, a gift by will to the University of Paris (R. 119) of a pri- 
vate library, containing twenty-seven books. Even if the stu- 
dents possessed books, the master ''read" and commented from 
his ''gloss" at great length on the texts being studied. Besides 
the mere text each teacher had a ''gloss" or commentary for it — 
that is, a mass of explanatory notes, summaries, cross-references, 
opinions by others, and objections to the statements of the text. 
The "gloss" was a book in itself, often larger than the text, and 
these standard glosses, or commentaries, were used in the uni- 
versity instruction for centuries. In Theology and Canon La\y 
they were particularly extensive. 

It will be seen that both students and professors were bound to 



THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 



119 



the text, as were the teachers of the Seven Liberal Arts in the 
cathedral schools before them. There was no appeal to the 
imagination, still less to observation, experiment, or experience. 
Each generation taught what it had learned, except that from 
time to time some thinker made a new organization, or some new 
body of knowledge was unearthed and added. 

The disputation; equipment. A method much used was the 
disputation, and participation in a number of these was required 
for degrees (R. 116). These were logical contests, not unlike a 




Fig. 24. Library of the Uxi\"ersity of Leyden, in Holland 
(After an engraving by J. C. Woudanus, dated 1610) 
This shows well the chained books, and a common type of bookcase in use in 
monasteries, churches, and higher schools. Counting 35 books to the case, this 
shows a library of 35 volumes on mathematics; 70 volumes each on literature, 
philosophy, and medicine; 140 volumes of historical books; 175 volumes on civil 
and canon law; and 160 volumes on theology, or a total of 770 volumes — a good- 
sized hbrar>' for the time. 



modern debate, in which the students took sides, cited authorities, 
and summarized arguments, all in Latin. Sometimes a student 
gave an exhibition in which he debated both sides of a question, 
and summarized the argument, after the manner of the professors. 
As a corrective to the memorization of lectures and texts, these 



I20 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

disputations served a useful purpose in awakening intellectual 
vigor and logical keenness. They were very popular until into 
the sixteenth century, when new subject-matter and new ways 
of thinking offered new opportunities for the exercise of the in- 
tellect. 

In teaching equipment there was almost nothing at first, and 
but little for centuries to come. Laboratories, workshops, gym- 
nasia, good buildings and classrooms — all alike were equally un- 
known. Time schedules of lectures (Rs.. 122, 123) came in but 
slowly, in such matters each professor being a free lance. Nor 
were there any libraries at first, though in time these developed. 
For a long time books were both expensive and scarce (Rs. 78, 119, 
120) . After the invention of printing (first book printed in 1456) , 
university libraries increased rapidly and soon became the 
chief feature of the university equipment. Figure 24 shows the 
library of the University of Leyden, in Holland, thirty-five years 
after its foundation, and about one hundred and fifty years after 
the beginnings of printing. It shows a rather large increase in 
the size of book collections after the introduction of printing, and 
a good library organization. 

Value of the training given. Measured in terms of modem 
standards the instruction was undoubtedly poor, unnecessarily 
drawn out, and the educational value low. We could now teach 
as much information, and in a better manner, in but a fraction 
of the time then required. Viewed also by the standards of in- 
struction in the higher schools of Greece and Rome the conditions 
were almost equally bad. Viewed, though, from the standpoint 
of what had prevailed in western Europe during the dark period 
of the early Middle Ages, it represented a marked advance in 
method and content — except in pure literature, where there was 
an undoubted decline due to the absorbing interest in Dialectic — 
and it particularly marked a new spirit, as nearly critical as the 
times would allow. Despite the heterogeneous and but partially 
civilized student body, youthful and but poorly prepared for 
study, the drunkenness and fighting, the lack of books and equip- 
ment, the large classes and the poor teaching methods, and the 
small amount of knowledge which formed the grist for their mills 
and which they ground exceeding small, these new universities 
held within themselves, almost in embryo form, the largest prom- 
ise for the intellectual future of western Europe which had ap- 
peared since the days of the old universities of the Hellenic world 



THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 121 

(R. 124). In these new institutions knowledge was not only 
preserved and transmitted, but was in time to be tremendously 
advanced and extended. They were the first organizations to 
break the monopoly of the Church in learning and teaching; they 
were the centers to which all new knowledge gravitated; under 
their shadow thousands of young men found intellectual compan- 
ionship and in their classrooms intellectual stimulation; and in 
encouraging ''laborious subtlety, heroic industry, and intense 
application," even though on very limited subject-matter, and in 
training "men to think and work rather than to enjoy" (R. 124), 




Fig. 25. a University Lecture and Lecture Room 
(From a woodcut printed at Strassburg, 1608) 



they were preparing for the time when western Europe should 
awaken to the riches of Greece and Rome and to a new type of 
intellectual Kfe of its own. From these beginnings the university 
organization has persisted and grown and expanded, and to-day 
stands, the Catholic Church alone excepted, as the oldest organ- 
ized institution of human society. 

The manifest tendency of the universities toward speculation, 
though for long within limits approved by the Church, was ulti- 
mately to awaken inquiry, investigation, rational thinking, and 
to bring forth the modern spirit. The preservation and transmis- 



122 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

sion of knowledge was by the university organization transferred 
from the monastery to the school, from monks to doctors, and 
from the Church to a body of logically trained men, only nomi- 
nally members of the clerici. Their successors would in time en- 
tirely break away from connections with either Church or State, 
and stand forth as the independent thinkers and scholars in the 
arts, sciences, professions, and even in Theology. University 
graduates in Medicine would in time wage a long struggle against 
bigotry to lay the foundations of modem medicine. Graduates 
in Law would contend with kings and feudal lords for larger 
privileges for the as yet lowly common man, and would help to 
usher in a period of greater political equality. The university 
schools of Theology were in time to send forth the keenest critics 
of the practices of the Church. Out of the university cloisters 
were to come the men — Dante, Petrarch, Wy cliff e, Huss, Luther, 
Calvin, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton — who were to usher in the 
modern spirit. 

The universities as a public force. Almost from the first the 
universities availed themselves of their privileges and proclaimed 
a bold independence. The freedom from arrest and trial by the 
civil authorities for petty offenses, or even for murder, and the 
right to go on a strike if in any way interfered with, were but 
beginnings in independence in an age when such independence 
seemed important. These rights were in time given up, and in 
their place the much more important rights of liberty to study as 
truth seemed to lead, freedom in teaching as the master saw the 
truth, and the right to express themselves as an institution on pub- 
lic questions which seemed to concern them, were slowly but defi- 
nitely taken on in place of the earlier privileges. Virtually a new 
type of members of society — a new Estate — was evolved, rank- 
ing with Church, State, and nobiHty, and this new Estate soon 
began to express itself in no uncertain tones on matters which 
concerned both Church and State. The universities were demo- 
cratic in organization and became democratic in spirit, represent- 
ing a heretofore unknown and unexpressed public opinion in 
western Europe. 

In an age of oppression these university organizations stood for 
freedom. In an age of force they began the substitution of reason. 
In the centuries from the end of the Dark Ages to the Reformation 
they were the homes of free thought. They early assumed na- 
tional character and proclaimed a bold independence. Questions 



THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 123 

of State and Church they discussed with a freedom before un- 
known. They presented their grievances to both kings and popes, 
from both they obtained new privileges, to both they freely offered 
their advice, and sometimes both were forced to do their bidding. 
For the first time since the downfall of Rome the administration 
of human affairs was now placed once more in the hands of edu- 
cated men. By the interchange of students from all lands and 
their hospitality, such as it was, to the stranger, the universities 
tended to break down, barriers and to prepare Europe for larger 
intercourse and for more of a common life. 

On the masses of the people, of course, they had little or no 
influence, and could not have for centuries to come. Their great- 
est work, as has been the case with universities ever since their 
foundation, was that of drawing to their classrooms the brightest 
minds of the times, the most capable and the most industrious, 
and out of this young raw material training the leaders of the 
future in Church and State. Educationally, one of their most 
important services was in creating a surplus of teachers in the 
Arts who had to find a market for their abilities in the rising 
secondary schools. These developed rapidly after 1200, and to 
these we owe a somewhat more general diffusion of the little 
learning and the intellectual training of the time. In preparing 
future leaders for State and Church in law, theology, and teaching, 
the universities, though sometimes opposed and their opinions 
ignored, nevertheless contributed materially to the making and 
moulding of national history. The first great result of their work 
in training leaders we see in the Renaissance movement of the 
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, to which we next turn. In 
this movement for a revival of the ancient learning, and the sub- 
sequent movements for a purer and a better religious life, the men 
trained by the universities were the leaders. 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

Why would the stiidia puhlica tend to attract a different type of scholar 

than those in the monasteries, and gradually to supersede them in 

importance? 

Show how the mediaeval university was a gradual and natural evolution, 

as distinct from a founded university of to-day. 

Show that the university charter was a first step toward independence 

from church and state control. 

Show the relation between the system of apprenticeship developed for 

student and teacher in a mediaeval university, and the stages of student 

and teacher in a university of to-day. 



124 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

5. Show how the chartered university of the Middle Ages was an "associa- 
tion of Hke-minded men for worldly purposes." 

6. Do university professors to-day have privileges akin to those granted 
professors in a mediaeval university? 

7. What has caused the old Arts Faculty to break up into so many groups, 
whereas Law, Medicine, and Theology have stayed united? 

8. Do universities, when founded to-day, usually start with all four of the 
mediceval faculties represented? 

9. Which of the professional faculties has changed most in the nature and 
character of its instruction? Why has this been so? 

10. Enumerate a number of different things which have enabled the modern 
university greatly to shorten the period of instruction? 

11. Aside from differences in teachers, why are some university subjects 
today taught much more compactly and economically than other 
subjects? 

12. After admitting all the defects of the mediaeval university, why did the 
university nevertheless represent so important a development for the 
future of western civilization? • 

13. What does the long continuance, without great changes in character, 
of the university as an institution indicate as to its usefulness to so- 
ciety? 

14. Does the university of to-day play as important a part in the progress of 
society as it did in the mediaeval times? Why? 

15. Show how the mediaeval university put books in the place of things, 
whereas the modern university tries to reverse this. 

16. Show how the rise of the universities gave an educated ruling class to 
Europe, even though the nobility may not have attended them. 

17. Show how, in an age of lawlessness, the universities symbolized the 
supremacy of mind over brute force. 

18. Show how the mediaeval universities aided civilization by breaking down, 
somewhat, barriers of nationality and ignorance among peoples. 

19. Show how the university stood, as the crowning effort of its time, in the 
slow upward struggle to rebuild civilization on the ruins of what had once 
been. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

100. Rashdall and Minerva: University Foundations before 1600. 
loi. Fr. Barbarossa: Privileges for Students who travel for Study. 

102. Phihp Augustus: Privileges granted Students at Paris. 

103. Count Rupert: Charter of the University of Heidelberg. 

104. Philip IV: Exemption of Students and Masters from Taxation. 

105. Vercelli: Privileges granted to the University b}^ the City. 

106. Villani: The Cost to a City of maintaining a University. 

107. Pope Gregory IX: Right to suspend Lectures {Cessatio). 

108. Roger of Wendover: a Cessatio at Oxford. 

109. Henry III: England invites Scholars to leave Paris. 

no. Pope Gregory IX: Early Licensing of Professors to teach. 

111. Pope Nicholas IV: The Right to grant Licenses to teach. 

112. Rashdall: A University License to teach. 

113. Paris Statutes, 1254: Books required for the Arts Degree. 

114. Leipzig Statutes, 1410: Books required for the Arts Degree. 

115. Oxford Statutes, 1408-31: Books required for the Arts Degree. 



THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES 125 

116. Oxford, Fourteenth Century: Requirements for the Professional 
Degrees. 

(a) In Theology. (c) In Civil Law. 

{b) In Canon Law. (d) In Medicine. 

117. Paris Statutes, 1270-74: Requirements for the Medical Degree. 

118. Roger Bacon: On the Teaching of Theology. 

119. Master Stephen: Books left by Will to the University of Paris. 

120. Roger Bacon: The Scarcity of Books on Morals. 

121. Balasus: Methods of Instruction in the Arts Faculty of Paris. 

122. Toulouse: Time-Table of Lectures in Arts, 1309. 

123. Leipzig: Time-Table of Lectures in Arts, 1519. 

124. Rashdall: Value and Influence of the Mediaeval University. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Boase, Charles William. Oxford (Historic Towns Series). 

Clark, Andrew. The Colleges at Oxford. 

Clark, J. W. Libraries in the Mediceval and Renaissance Periods. 
*Clark, J. W. The Care of Books. 

*Compayre, G. Abelard, and the Origin and Early History of the Universi- 
ties. 

Corbin, John. An American at Oxford. 
*Jebb, R. C. The Work of the Universities for the Nation. 

MuUinger, J. B. History of the University of Cambridge. 
*Norton, A. O. Readings in the History of Education; Medieval Universi- 
ties. 
*Paetow, L. J. The Arts Course at Mediceval Universities. (Univ. 111. 

Studies, vol. iii, no. 7, Jan. 19 10). 
*Paulsen, Fr. The German Universities. 

Rait, R. S. Life of a Mediceval University. 
*Rashdall, H. Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, 

Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. I. 

Sheldon, Henry. Student Life and Customs. 



PART III 

THE TRANSITION FROM MEDIAEVAL TO MODERN 

ATTITUDES 

• • 

THE RECOVERY OF THE ANCIENT LEARNING 

THE REAWAKENING OF SCHOLARSHIP 

AND THE RISE OF RELIGIOUS 

AND SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 



CHAPTER X 
THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 

The period of change. The thirteenth century has often been 
called the wonderful century of the mediaeval world. It was won- 
derful largely in that the forces struggling against mediae vaHsm to 
evolve the modern spirit here first find clear expression. It was a 
century of rapid and unmistakable progress in almost every line. 
By its close great changes were under way which were destined 
ultimately to shake off the incubus of mediaevalism and to trans- 
form Europe. In many respects, though, the fourteenth was a 
still more wonderful century. 

The evolution of the universities which we have just traced 
was one of the most important of these thirteenth-century mani- 
festations. Lacking in intellectual material, but impelled by the 
new impulses beginning to work in the world, the scholars of the 
time went earnestly to work, by speculative methods, to organize 
the dogmatic theology of the Church into a system of thinking. 
The result was Scholasticism. From one point of view the result 
was barren; from another it was full of promise for the future. 
Though the workers lacked materials, were overshadowed by the 
mediaeval spirit of authority, and kept their efforts clearly within 
hmits approved by the Church, the ''heroic industry" and the 
''intense application" displayed in effecting the organization, 
and the logical subtlety developed in discussing the results, prom- 
ised much for the future. The rise of university instruction, and 
the work of the Scholastics in organizing the knowledge of the 
time, were both a resultant of new influences already at work and 
a prediction of larger consequences to follow. In a later age, and 
with men more emancipated from church control, the same spirit 
was destined to burst forth in an effort to discover and recon- 
struct the historic past. 

During the thirteenth century, too, the new Estate, which had 
come into existence alongside of the clergy and the nobility, began 
to assume large importance. The arts-and- crafts guilds were at- 
taining a large development, and out of this new burgher class the 
great general public of modern times has in time evolved. Trade 
and industry were increasing in all lands, and merchants and suc- 
cessful artisans were becoming influential through their newly 



I30 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

obtained wealth and rights. The erection of stately churches and 
town halls, often beautifully carved and highly ornamented, was 
taking place. Great cathedrals, those "symphonies in stone," of 
which Notre Dame is a good example, were rising or being further 
expanded and decorated at many places in western Europe. 

The new spirit of nationality. The new spirit now moving in 
western Europe also found expression in the evolution of the 
modem European States, based on the new national feeling. 
New national languages also were coming into being, and the 
national epics of the people — the Cid, the Arthurian Legends, 
the Chansons, and the Nihelungen Lied — were reduced to writ- 
ing. With the introduction from the East, toward the close of 
the thirteenth century, of the process of making paper for writ- 
ing, and with the increase of books in the vernacular, the English, 
French, Spanish, Italian, and German languages rapidly took 
shape. Their development was expressive of the new spirit in 
western Europe, as also was the fact that Dante (i 264-1321), 
"the first Hterary layman smce Boethius" (d. 524), wrote his 
great poem. The Divine Comedy, in his native Italian instead of in 
the Latin which he knew so well — an evidence of independence 
of large future import. New native literatures were springing 
forth all over Europe. Beginning with the troubadours in south- 
em France (p. 99), and taken up by the trouveres in northern 
France and by the minnesingers in German lands, the new poetry 
of nature and love and joy of livmg had spread everywhere. A 
new race of men was beginning to "sing songs as bUthesome and 
gay as the birds" and to express in these songs the joys of the 
world here below. 

Transformation of the mediaeval man. The fourteenth cen- 
tury was a period of still more rapid change and transformation. 
New objects of interest were coming to the front, and new stand- 
ards of judgment were being applied. National spirit and a na- 
tional patriotism were finding expression. The mediaeval man, 
with his feeling of personal insignificance, lack of self-confidence, 
"no sense of the past behind him, and no conception of the possi- 
bilities of the future before him," was rapidly giving way to the 
man possessed of the modem spirit — the man of self-confidence, 
conscious of his powers, enjoying life, feeling his connection with 
the historic past, and realizing the potentialities of accomplish- 
ment in the world here below. It was the great work of the period 
of transition, and especially of the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 



131 



turies, to effect this change, ''to awaken in man a consciousness of 
his powers, to give him confidence in himself, to show him the 
beauty of the world and the joy of life, and to make him feel his 
living connection with the past and the greatness of the future he 
might create." As soon as men began clearly to experience such 
feelings, they began to inquire, and inquiry led to the realization 
that there had been a great historic past of which they knew but 
little, and of which they wanted to know much. When this point 
had been reached, western Europe was ready for a revival of 
learning. 

v^ The beginnings in Italy. This revival began in Italy. The 
ItaKans had preserved more of the old Roman culture than had 
any other people, and had been the first to develop a new political 
and social order and revive the refinements of Hfe after the deluge 
of barbarism which had engulfed Europe. They, too, had been 
the first to feel the inadequacy of mediaeval learning to satisfy 
the intellectual unrest of men conscious of new standards of life. 
This gave them at least a century of advance over the nations 
of northern Europe. The old Roman life also was nearer to 
them, and meant more, so that a movement for a revival of inter- 
est in it attracted to it the finest young minds of central and north- 
em Italy and inspired in them something closely akin to patriotic 
fervor. They felt themselves the direct heirs of the political and 
intellectual eminence of Imperial Rome, 
and they began the work of restoring 
to themselves and of trying to under- 
stand their inheritance. 

In Petrarch (1304-74) we have the 
beginnings of the movement. He has 
been called "the first modem scholar 
and man of letters." Repudiating the 
other-worldliness ideal and the scho- 
lastic learning of his time, possessed 
of a deep love for beauty in nature and 
art, a delight in travel, a desire for 
worldly fame, a strong historical sense, 
and the self-confidence to plan a great 
constructive work, he began the task of 
unearthing the monastic treasures to 
ascertain what the past had been and known and done. At 
twenty-nine he made his first great discovery, at Liege, in the 




Fig. 26. Petrarch 
(1304-74) 

'The Morning Star of the 
Renaissance" 




132 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

form of two previously unknown orations of Cicero. Twelve 
years later, at Verona, he found half of one of the letters of 
Cicero which had been lost for ages. All his life he collected 
and copied manuscripts. His letter to a friend telling him of his 
difficulty in getting a work of Cicero copied, and his joy in doing 
the work himself (R. 125), is typical of 
his laborss 

Through Boccaccio, whom he first met 
in 1350, Petrarch's work was made known 
in Florence, then the wealthiest and most 
artistic and literary city in the world, 
and there the new knowledge and method 
were warmly received. Boccaccio equaled 
Petrarch in his passion for the ancient 
writers, hunting for them wherever he 
thought they might be found. One of 
his pupils has left us a melancholy picture 
of the library at Monte Cassino, as Boc- 
^^^" (i3i3!75f'^^''^ caccio found it at the time of his visit 
"TheFatherofltalianProse" (R* 126). He wrote a book of popular 

tales and romances, filled with the mod- 
em spirit, which made him the father of Itahan prose as Dante 
was of Italian poetry; prepared the first dictionaries of classical 
geography and Greek mythology; and was the first western 
scholar to learn Greek. 

"In the dim light of learning's dawn they stand, 
Flushed with the first gUmpses of a long-lost land." 

A century of recovery and reconstruction. The work done by 
these two friends in discovering and editing was taken up by 
others, and during the century (1333-1433) dating from the first 
great ''find" of Petrarch the principal additions to Latin Htera- 
ture were made. The monasteries and castles of Europe were 
ransacked in the hope of discovering something new, or more ac- 
curate copies of previously known books. At monasteries and 
churches as widely separated as Monte Cassino, near Naples; 
Lodi, near Milan; Milan, itself; and VerceUi, in Italy: Saint Gall 
and other monasteries, in Switzerland: Paris; Cluny, near the 
present city of Macon; Langres, near the source of the Marne; 
and monasteries in the Vosges Mountains, in France: Corvey, in 
Westphalia; and Hersfeld, Cologne, and Mainz in Germany — 
important finds were made. Thus widely had the old Latin 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 133 

authors been scattered, copied, and forgotten. In a letter to a 
friend (R. 127 a) the enthusiast, Poggio Bracciolini, tells of finding 
(141 6) the long-lost Institutes of Oratory of Quintilian, at Saint 
Gall, and of copying it for posterity. This, and the reply of his 
friend (R. 127 b), reveal something of the spirit and the emotions 
of those engaged in the recovery of Latin literature and the re- 
construction of Roman history. 

The finds, though, while important, were after all of less value 
than the spirit which directed the search, or the careful work 
which was done in collecting, comparing, questioning, inferring, 
criticizing, and editing corrected texts, and reconstructing old 
Roman life and history. We have in this new work a complete 
break with scholastic methods, and we see in it the awakening of 
the modern scientific spirit. It was this same critical, construc- 
tive spirit which, when apphed later to Christian practices, 
brought on the Reformation; when applied to the problems of the 
universe, revealed to men the wonderful world of science; and 
when applied to problems of government, led to the questioning 
of the theory of the divine right of kings, and to the evolution of 
democracy. We have here a modem spirit, a craving for truth 
for its own sake, an awakening of the historical sense, and an ap- 
preciation of beauty in literature and nature which was soon to be 
followed by an appreciation of beauty in art. 

The revival of Greek in the West. With the new interest in 
Latin Hterature it was but natural that a revival of the study of 
Greek should follow. While a knowledge of Greek had not abso- 
lutely died out in the West during the Middle Ages, there were 
very few scholars who knew anything about it, and none who 
could read it. It was natural, too, that the revival of it should 
come first in Italy. 

Near the end of the fourteenth century it became known in 
Florence that Manuel Chrysoloras (c. 1350-1415), a Byzantine of 
noble birth, a>leacher of rhetoric and philosophy at Constanti- 
nople, and the most accomplished Greek scholar of his age, had 
arrived in Venice as an envoy from the Eastern Emperor. Flor- 
entine scholars visited him, and on his return accompanied him to 
Constantinople to learn Greek. In 1396 Chrysoloras was invited 
by Florence to accept an appointment, in the university there, to 
the first chair of Greek letters in the West, and accepted. From 
1396 to 1400 he taught Greek in the rich and stately city of Flor- 
ence, at that time the intellectual and artistic center of Christen- 



134 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

dom. From his visit dates the enthusiasm for the study of 
Greek in the West. 

Other Greek scholars arrive in Italy. Chrysoloras returned to 
Constantinople for a time, in 1403, and Guarina of Verona, who 
had been one of his pupils, accompanied him and spent five years 
there as a member of his household. When he returned to Italy 
he brought with him about fifty manuscripts, and before his death 
he had translated a number of them into Latin. He also pre- 
pared a Greek grammar which superseded that of Chrysoloras. 
In 141 2 he was elected to the chair at Florence formerly held by 
Chrysoloras, and later he estabhshed an important school at 
Ferrara, based largely on instruction in the Latin and Greek 
classics, which will be referred to again in the next chapter. 

A number of other learned Greeks had reached Italy prior to 
the fall of Constantinople (1453) before the advancing Turks, 
and after its fall many more sought there a new home. Many of 
these found, on landing, that their knowledge of Greek and the 
possession of a few Greek books was an open sesame to the learned 
circles of Italy. 

Enthusiasm for the new movement ; libraries and academies 
founded. The enthusiasm for the recovery and restoration 
of ancient literature and history which this work awakened 
among the younger scholars of Italy can be imagined. While 
most of the professors in the universities and most of the 
church officials at first had nothing to do with the new move- 
ment, being wedded to scholastic methods of thinking, the lead- 
ers of the new learning drew about them many of the brightest 
and most energetic of the young men who came to those univer- 
sities which were hospitable to the new movement. Greek 
scholars in the university towns were followed by admiring bands 
of younger students, who soon took up the work and superseded 
their masters. Academies, named after the one conducted by 
Plato in the groves near Athens, whose purpose was to promote 
literary studies, were founded in all the important Italian cities 
(R. 129) . The members usually Latinized their names, and cele- 
brated the ancient festivals. It was the curious and enthusiastic 
Italians who, more than the Greek scholars who taught them the 
language, opened up the literature and history of Athens to the 
comprehension of the western world. 

The financial support of the movement came from the wealthy 
merchant princes, reigning dukes, and a few church authorities, 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 135 

who assisted scholars and spent money most liberally in collecting 
manuscripts and accumulating books. Cosimo de' Medici 
(1389-1464), a banker and ruler of Florence, spent great sums in 
collecting and copying manuscripts. Vespasiano, a fifteenth- 
century bookseller of Florence, has left us an interesting picture 
of the work of Cosimo in founding (1444) the great Medicean 




Fig. 28. Bookcase and Desk in the Medicean Library 

AT Florence 

(Drawn from a photograph) 

This Hbrary was founded in 1444. It contains to-day about 10,000 
Greek and Latin manuscripts, many of them very rare, and of a 
few the only copies known. The building was designed by Michael 
Angelo, and its construction was begun in 1525. The bookcases are 
of about this date. It shows the early method of chaining books to 
the shelves, and cataloguing the volumes on the end of each stack. 

library at Florence (R. 130) and of the difficulties of book collect- 
ing in the days before the invention of printing. Under Cosimo's 
grandson, Lorenzo the Magnificent, who died in 1492, two expe- 
ditions were sent to Greece to obtain manuscripts for the Floren- 
tine library. Vespasiano also describes for us the books collected 



136 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



(c. 1475-80) for the great ducal library at Urbiro (R. 131), the 
greatest library in the Christian world at the time of its comple- 
tion, and the work of Pope Nicholas V (1447-1455) in laying the 
foundations (1450) for the great Vatican Library at Rome (R. 132). 
The revival aided by the invention of paper and printing. Very 
fortunately for the spread of the new learning an important 
process and a great invention now came in at a most opportune 
time. The process was the manufacture of paper; the invention 
that of printing. 

The manufacture of paper is probably a Chinese invention, 
early obtained by the Arabs. During the Mohammedan occupa- 
tion of Spain paper mills were set up there, and a small supply of 

their paper found its way 
across the Pyrenees. The 
Christians who drove the Mo- 
hammedans out lost the pro- 
cess, and it now came back 
once more from the East. By 
about 1250 the Greeks had 
obtained the process from 
Mohammedan sources, and in 
1276 the first paper mill was 
set up in Italy. In 1340 a 
paper factory was estabhshed 
at Padua, and soon thereafter 
other factories began to make 
paper at Florence, Bologna, 
Milan, and Venice. In 1320 a 
paper factory was established 
at Mainz, in Germany, and 
in 1390 another at Nuremberg. 
By 1450 paper was in common 
use and the way was now open 
for one of the world's greatest 
inventions. 

This was the invention of 
printing. From the difficulty 
experienced in securing books 
for the great libraries at Florence, Urbino, and Rome, as we have 
seen (Rs. 130, 131, 132), and the great cost of reproducing single 
copies of books, we can see that the work of the humanists of 




Fig. 29. An Early Sixteenth- 
Century Press 

"The prynters haue founde a crafte to make 
bokis by brasen letters sette in ordre by a 
frame." An engraving, dated 1520. The 
man at the right_ is setting type, and the 
one at the lever is making an impression. 
A number of four-page printed sheets are 
seen on the table at the right of the press. 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 137 

the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in Italy probably would 
have had but little influence elsewhere but for the invention 
of printing. To disseminate a new learning involving two great 
literatures by copying books, one at a time by hand, would have 
prevented instruction in the new subjects becoming general for 
centuries, and would have materially retarded the progress of 
the world. The discover)/ of the art of printing, coming when it 
did, scattered the new learning over Europe. 

The enormous importance of this new invention which could be 
used to print rapidly a thousand or more copies of a book, all 
exactly alike and free from copyist errors, can be appreciated. 
It tremendously cheapened books, made the general use of the 
textbook method of teaching possible, and paved the way for a 
great extension of schools and learning (R. 134). From now on 
the press became a formidable rival to the pulpit and the ser- 
mon, and one of the greatest of instruments for human progress 
and individual liberty. From this time on educational progress 
was to be much more rapid than it had been in the past. From 
an educational point of view the invention of printing might 
almost be taken as marking the close of the mediaeval and the 
beginning of modern times. 

Rise of geographical discovery. The new influences awakened 
by the Revival of Learning found expression in other directions. 




Fig. 30. The World as known to Christian Europe before Columbus 

One of these was geographical discovery, itself an outgrowth of 
that series of movements known as the Crusades , with the accom- 
panying revival of trade and commerce. These led to travel, ex- 



138 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ploration, and discovery. By the latter part of the thirteenth 
century the most extensive travel which had taken place since the 
days of ancient Rome had begun, and in the next two and a half 
centuries a great expansion of the known world took place. 
Marco Polo and Sir John Mandeville made extended travels to 
the Orient, and returning (Polo returned, 1295) described to a 
wondering Europe the new lands and peoples they had seen. The 
Voyages of Polo and the Travels of Mandeville were widely read. 
By the beginning of the fourteenth century the compass had been 
perfected, in Naples, and a great era of exploration had been be- 
gun. In 1402 venturesome sailors, out beyond the ''Pillars of 
Hercules," discovered the Canary Islands; in 14 19 the Madeira 
Islands were reached; in 1460 the Cape Verde Islands were found; 
and in 1487 Vasco da Gama rounded the southern tip of Africa 
and discovered the long-hoped-for sea route to India. Five years 
later, sailing westward with the same end in view, Columbus dis- 
covered the American continent. Finally, in 15 19-21, Magel- 
lan's ships circumnavigated the globe, and, returning safely to 
Spain, proved that the world was round. In 1507 Waldensee- 
miiller published his Introduction to Geography, a book that was 
widely read, and one which laid the foundations of this modern 
study. 

The effect of these discoveries in broadening the minds of men 
can be imagined. The religious theories and teachings of the 
Middle Ages as to the world were in large part upset. New races 
and new peoples had been found, a round earth instead of a fiat 
one had been proved to exist, new continents had been discovered, 
and new worlds were now ready to be opened up for scientific ex- 
ploration and colonization. 

About 1500 a stimulating time. The latter part of the fifteenth 
century and the earlier part of the sixteenth was a stimulating 
period in the intellectual development of Christian Europe. The 
Turks had closed in on Constantinople (1453) and ended the 
Eastern Empire, and many Greek scholars had fled to the West. 
Though the Revival of Learning had culminated in Italy, its in- 
fluence was still strongly felt in such cities as Florence and Venice, 
while in German lands and in England the reform movement 
awakened by it was at its height. Greek and Hebrew were now 
taught generally in the northern universities. Everywhere the 
old scholastic learning and methods were being overturned by 
the new humanism, and scholastic teachers were being displaced 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 139 

from their positions in the universities and schools. The new hu- 
manistic university at Wittenberg, founded in 1502, was exerting 
large influence among German scholars and attracting to it the 
brightest young minds in German lands. Erasmus was the great- 
est international scholar of the age, though ably seconded by dis- 
tinguished humanistic scholars in Italy, France, England, the Low 
Countries, and German lands. The court schools of Italy (R. 135) 
and the municipal colleges of France (R. 136) were marking out 
new lines in the education of the select few. Colet was founding 
his reformed grammar school (15 10) at Saint Paul's, in London 
(R. 138), the first of a long line of Enghsh humanistic grammar 
schools. Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michael Angelo were 
adding new fame to Italy, and carrying the Renaissance move- 
ment over into that art which the world has ever since treasured 
and admired. 

The Italian cities, particularly Genoa and Venice, had become 
rich from their commerce, as had many cities in northern lands. 
Everywhere the cities were centers for the new Hfe in western 
Christendom. England was rapidly changing from an agricul- 
tural to a manufacturing nation. The serf was evolving into a 
free man all over western Europe. Italian navigators had dis- 
covered new sea routes and lands, and robbed the ocean of its ter- 
rors. Columbus had discovered a new world, soon to be peopled 
and to become the home of a new civilization. Magellan had 
shown that the world was round and poised in space, instead of 
flat and surrounded by a circumfluent ocean. The printing-press 
had been perfected and scattered over Europe, and was rapidly 
multiplying books and creating a new desire to read (R. 134). 
The Church was more tolerant of new ideas than it had been in 
the past, or soon was to be for centuries to come. All of these 
new influences and conditions combined to awaken thought as 
had not happened before since the days of ancient Rome. The 
world seemed about ready for rapid advances in many new direc- 
tions, and great progress in learning, education, government, art, 
commerce, and invention seemed almost within grasp. Un- 
fortunately the promise was not to be fulfilled, and the progress 
that seemed possible in 1500 was soon lost amid the bitterness 
and hatreds engendered by a great religious conflict, then about 
to break, and which was destined to leave, for centuries to come, a 
legacy of intolerance and suspicion in all lands. 



140 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. In what way was the fact that Dante wrote his Divine Comedy in Italian 
instead of Latin an evidence of large independence? 

2. Was it a good thing for peace and civilization that the modern languages 
arose, instead of all speaking and writing Latin? Why? 

3. Of what value to one is a "sense of the past behind him, and a conception 
of the possibilities of the future before him," by way of giving perspective 
and self-confidence? Do we have many mediaeval-type people to-day? 

4. Show how the work of Petrarch required a man with a strong historic 
sense. 

5. Show the awakening of the modern scientific spirit in the critical and 
reconstructive work of the scholars of the Revival. 

6. Contrast the modern and the mediaeval spirit as related to learning. 

7. Suppose that we should unexpectedly unearth in Mexico a vast literature 
of a very learned and scholarly people who once inhabited the United 
States, and should discover a key by which to read it. Would the 
interest awakened be comparable with that awakened by the revival of 
Greek in Italy? Why? 

8. What does the fact that no copy of Quintilian's Institutes, a very famous 
Roman book, was known in Europe before 1416 indicate as to the de- 
struction of books during the early Christian period? 

9. What does the fact that the Christians knew little about Greek literature 
or scholarship for centuries, and that the awakening was in large part 
brought about by the pressure of the Turks on the Eastern Empire, 
indicate as to intercourse among Mediterranean peoples during the 
Middle Ages? 

10. How do you explain the fact that the recovery of the ancient learning 
was very largely the work of young men, and that older professors in 
the universities frequently held aloof from any connection with the 
movement? 

11. Compare the financial support of the Revival in Italy with the support 
of universities and of scientific undertakings in America during recent 
times. 

12. Explain the long-delayed interest in the Revival in the northern countries. 

13. Trace the larger steps in the transference of Greek literature a-nd learn- 
ing from Athens, in the fifth century B.C., to its arrival at Harvard, in 
Massachusetts, in 1636. 

14. What was the importance of the rediscovery of Hebrew? 

15. Show how the invention of printing was a revolutionary force of the 
first magnitude. 

16. Why should a hcense from the Church have been necessary to print a 
book? Have we any remaining vestiges of this church control over 
books? 

17. Do you see any special reason why Venice should have become the early 
center of the book trade? 

18. Show how the printing-press became ''a formidable rival to the pulpit 
and the sermon, and one of the greatest instruments for human progress 
and liberty." 

19. One writer has characterized the Revival of Learning as the beginnings 
of the emergence of the individual from institutional control, and the 
substitution of the humanities for the divinities as the basis of education. 
Is this a good characterization of a phase of the movement? 



THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING 141 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

125. Petrarch: On copying a Work of Cicero. 

126. Benvenuto: Boccaccio's \'isit to the Library at JVIonte Cassino. 

127. Symonds: Finding of QuintiHan's Instiliiies at Saint Gall. 

{a) Letter of Poggio Bracciolini on the "Find." 
(6) Reply of Lionardo Bruni. 

128. MS.: Reproducing Books before the Days of Printing. 

129. Symonds: Italian Societies for studying the Classics. 

130. Vespasiano: Founding of the IVIedicean Library at Florence. 

131. Vespasiano: Founding of the Ducal Library at Urbino. 

132. Vespasiano: Founding of the Vatican Library at Rome. 
133* Green: The New Learning at Oxford. 

134. Green: The New Taste for Books. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Adams, G. B. •CivilizaJion during the Middle Ages. 

Blades, WilHam. William Caxton. 

Duff, E. G. Early Printed Books. 
*Field, Lilian F. introduction to the Study of the Renaissance. 
*Howells, W. D. Venetian Days (Venetian commerce). 
*Keane, John. The Evolution of Geography. 

La Croix, Paul. The Arts in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the 
Renaissance. 
*Loomis, Louise. Mediceval Hellenism. 

Oliphant, Mrs. Makers of Venice. 
*Robinson, J. H., and Rolfe, H. W. Petrarch, the First Modern Scholar and 
Man of Letters. 

Sandys, J. E. History of Classical Scholarship, vol. ii. 
*Sandys, J. E. Harvard Lectures on the Revival of Learning. 

Scaife, W. B. Florentine Life during the Renaissance. 

Sedgwick, H. D. Italy in the Thirteenth Century. 
*Symonds, J. A. The Renaissance in Italy; vol. ii, The Revival of Learning. 

Thorndike, Lynn. History of Mediceval Europe. 
*Walsh, Jas. J. The Thirteenth, Greatest of Centuries. 

Whitcomb, M. Source Book of the Italian Renaissance. 



CHAPTER XI 

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL OF 
LEARNING 

Significance of the Revival oif Learning. The important and out- 
standing educational result of the revival of ancient learning by 
Italian scholars was that it laid a basis for a new type of education 
below that of the university, destined in time to be much more 
widely opened to promising youths than the old cathedral and 
monastic schools had been. This new education, based on the 
great intellectual inheritance recovered from the ancient world by 
a relatively small number of Italian scholars, dominated the sec- 
ondary-school training of the middle and higher classes of society 
for the next four hundred years. It clearly began by 1450, it 
clearly controlled secondary education until at least after 1850. 
Out of the efforts of Italian scholars to resurrect, reconstruct, un- 
derstand, and utilize in education the fruits of their legacy from 
the ancient Greek and Roman world, arose modem secondary 
education, as contrasted with mediaeval church education. 

Mediaeval education, after all, was narrowly technical. It 
prepared for but one profession, and one type of service. There 
was little that was liberal, cultural, or humanitarian about it. It 
prepared for the world to come, not for the world men live in here. 
The new education developed in Italy aimed to prepare directly 
for life in the world here, and for useful and enjoyable life at that. 
Combining with the new humanistic (cultural) studies the best 
ideals and practices of the old chivalric education — physical 
training, manners and courtesy, reverence — the Italian pioneers 
devised a scheme of education, below that of the universities, 
which they claimed prepared youths not only for an intellectual 
appreciation of the great and wonderful past of which they were 
descendants, but also for intelligent service in the two great non- 
church occupations of Italy in the fifteenth century — public 
service for the City-State, and commerce and a business life. 
This new type of education spread to other lands, and a new 
type of secondary-school training, actuated by a new and a 
modern purpose, thus came out of the revival of learning in Italy. 

New schools created. The ''finds" began with Petrarch's dis- 
covery of two orations of Cicero, in 1333, and by the time *'the 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL 143 

century of finds" (1333-1433) was drawing to a close the mate- 
rials for a new type of secondary education had been accumulated. 
Not only was the old literature discovered and edited, but the 
finding of a complete copy of Quintihan's Institutes of Oratory at 
Saint Gall (R. 127), in 141 6, gave a detailed explanation of the old 
Roman theory of education at its best. A number of "court 
schools" now arose in the different cities, to which children from 
the nobihty and the baaking and merchant classes were sent to 
enjoy the advantages they offered over the older types of religious 
schools. 

Two of the most famous teachers in these court schools were 
Vittorino da Feltre, who conducted a famous school at Mantua 
from 1423 to 1446, and Guarino d a Vero na, who conducted an- 
other almost equally famous school at Ferrara from 1429 to 1460. 
Taking boys at nine or ten and retaining them until twenty or 
twenty-one, their schools were much like the best private board- 
ing-schools of England and America to-day. Drawing to them a 
selected class of students; emphasizing physical activities, man- 
ners, and morals; employing good teaching processes; and provid- 
ing the best instruction the world had up to that time known — 
the influence of these court schools was indeed large. Many of 
the most distinguished leaders in Church and State and some of 
the best scholars of the time were trained in them. By better 
methods they covered, in shorter time, as much or more than was 
provided in the Arts course of the universities, and so became ri- 
vals of them. The ultimate result was that the Arts courses in the 
universities were advanced to a much higher plane. 

The humanistic course of study. The new instruction was 
based on the study of Greek and Latin, combined with the courtly 
ideal and with some of the physical activities of the old chivalric 
education. Latin was begun with the first year in school, and the 
regular Roman emphasis was placed on articulation and proper 
accent. After some facility in the language had been gained, easy 
readings, selected from the greatest Roman writers, were at- 
tempted. As progress was made in reading and writing and 
speaking Latin as a living language, Cicero and Quintilian among 
prose writers, and Vergil, Lucan, Horace, Seneca, and Claudian 
among the poets, were read and studied. History was introduced 
in these schools for the first time and as a new subject of study, 
though the history was the history of Greece and Rome and was 
drawn from the authors studied. Livy and Plutarch were the 



144 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

chief historical writers used. Nothing that happened after the 
fall of Rome was deemed as of importance. Much emphasis was 
placed on manners, morality, and reverence, with Livy and Plu- 
tarch again as the great guides to conduct. Throughout all this 
the use of Latin as a living language was insisted upon; declama- 
tion became a fine art; and the ability to read, speak, and com- 
pose in Latin was the test. Cicero, in particular, because of the 
exquisite quality of his Latin style, became the great prose model. 
Quintilian was the supreme authority on the purpose and method 
of teaching (R. 25). Greek also was begun later, though studied 
much less extensively and thoroughly. The Greek grammar of 
Theodorus Gaza was studied, followed by the reading of Xeno- 
phon, Isocrates, Plutarch, and some of Homer and Hesiod. 

This thorough drill in ancient history and literature was given 
along with careful attention to manners and moral training, and 
each pupil's health was watchfully supervised — an absolutely 
new thought in the Christian world. Such physical sports and 
games as fencing, wrestHng, playing ball, football, running, leap- 
ing, and dancing were also given special emphasis. Competitive 
games between different schools were held, much as in modern 
times. The result was an all-round physical, mental, and moral 
training, vastly superior to anything previously offered by the 
cathedral and other church schools, and which at once estabHshed 
a new type which was widely copied. 

Humanism in France. From Italy the new humanism was 
carried to France, along with the retreating armies that had occu- 
pied Naples, Florence, and Milan, and when Francis I came to the 
French throne, in 151 5, the new learning found in him a wiUing 
patron. 

A royal press was set up in Paris, in 1526, to promote the in- 
troduction of the new learning. Libraries were built up, as in 
Italy. Humanist scholars were made secretaries and ambas- 
sadors. The College de France was established at Paris, by direc- 
tion of the King, with chairs in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and mathe- 
matics. To Hebrew the Itahans had given almost no attention, 
but in France, and particularly in Germany, Hebrew became an 
important study. The development of schools in northern France 
was hindered by the dissensions following the religious revolts of 
Luther and Calvin, but in southern France many of the cities 
founded municipal colleges, much like the court schools of north- 
ern Italy in type. The work of the city of Bordeaux in reorgan- 




Fig. 31. College de France 

Founded at Paris, in 1530, by King Francis I, for 
instruction in the new humanistic learning 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL 145 

izing its town school along the new lines was typical of the work 
of other southern cities. Good teachers, Hberal instruction, and 
a broad-minded atti- 
tude on the part of 
the governing author- 
ities made this school, 
known as the College 
de Guyenne, notable 
not only for human- 
istic instruction, but 
for intelligent pubHc 
education during the 
second half of the six- 
teenth century. The 
picture of this college 
(school) left us by its 

greatest principal, , 

EHe Vinet (R. 136), gives an interesting description of its work. 
Humanism in Germany. The French language and hfe was 
closely related to that of northern Italy, and French religious 
thought had always been so closely in touch with that of Rome 
that something of the Italian feeling for the old Roman culture 
and institutions was felt by the humanists of France. In Ger- 
many and England no such feehng existed, and in these countries 
any effort to discredit the rising native languages was much more 
likely to be regarded as mere pedantry. In both these countries, 
though, Latin was still the language of the Church, of the univer- 
sities, of all learned writing, and the means of international inter- 
course, and after the new humanism had once obtamed a foothold 
it was welcomed by scholars as a great addition to existing knowl- 

edse 

The enthusiasm of the humanists for the new learning led them 
to urge the establishment of humanistic secondary schools in the 
German cities. As in Italy, the commercial cities were the first 
to provide schools of the new type. In 1 5 26 the commercial city 
of Nuremberg, in southern Germany, opened one of the first of 
the new city humanistic secondary schools, Melanchthon being 
present and giving the dedicatory address. A number of similar 
schools were founded about this time in various German cities 
— Ilfeld Frankfort, Strassburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Dantzig 
-among the number. Many of these failed, as did the one at 



146 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



Nuremberg, to meet the needs of the people in essentially com- 
mercial cities. Whatever might have been true in more cultured 
Italy, in German cities a rigidly classical training for youth and 
early manhood was found but poorly suited to the needs of the 
sons of wealthy burghers destined to a commercial career. The 
rising commerce of the world apparently was to rest on native 
languages, and not on elegant Latin verse and prose. The com- 
mercial classes soon fell back on burgher schools, elementary 
vernacular schools, writing and reckoning schools, business ex- 
perience, and travel for the education of their sons, leaving the 
Latin schools of the humanists to those destined for the service of 
the Church, the law, teaching, or the higher state service. 

The Work of Johann Sturm. The most successful classical 
school in all Germany, and the' one which formed the pattern for 

future classical creations, was 
the gymnasium at Strassburg, 
under the direction (1536-82) 
of the famous Johann Sturm, 
or Sturmius, as he came to call 
himself. This was one of the 
early classical schools founded 
by the commercial cities^ but 
it had not been successful. In 
1536 the authorities invited 
Sturm, a graduate of the Uni- 
versity of Louvain, and at that 
time a teacher of classics and 
dialectic at Paris, where he 
had come in contact with the 
humanism brought from Italy, 
to become head of the school 
and reorganize it. This he 
did, and during the forty-five 
years he was head of the school it became the most famous 
classical school in continental Europe His Plan of Organization, 
pubHshed in 1538; his Letters to the Masters on the course of 
study, in 1565; and the record of an examination of each class 
in the school, conducted in 1578, all of which have been pre- 
served, give us a good idea as to the nature of the organ- 
ization and instruction (R. 137). 

Sturm was a strong and masterful man, with a genius for or- 




FiG. 32. Johann Sturm (1507-89) 

(After a contemporary engraving by 
Stofflin) 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL 147 

ganization. Probably adopting the plan of the French colleges 
(R. 136), he organized his school into ten classes, one for each 
year the pupil was to spend in the school, and placed a teacher in 
charge of each. The aim and end of education, as he stated it, 
was "piety, knowledge, and the art of speaking," and "every 
effort of teachers and pupils" should bend toward acquiring 
"knowledge, and purity and elegance of diction." Of the ten 
years the pupil was to spend in the gymnasium, seven were to be 
spent in acquiring a thorough mastery of pure idiomatic Latin, 
and the three remaining years to the acquisition of an elegant 
Ciceronian style. The instruction in both Latin and Greek was 
much like that of the court schools of Italy, except that in Greek 
the New Testament was read in addition. The plays and games 
and physical training of the Itahan schools, however, were omit- 
ted ; much less emphasis was placed on manners and gentlemanly 
conduct; and in educational purpose a narrow drill was substitu- 
ted for the broad cultural spirit of the French and Italian schools. 

Colet and Saint PauPs School. The first real estabhshment of 
the new learning in England came through the secondary schools, 
and through the refounding of the cathedral school of Saint 
Paul's, in London, by the humanist John Colet, in 15 10. Colet 
had become Dean of Saint Paul's Church, and Erasmus urged him 
to embrace the opportunity to reconstruct the school along hu- 
manistic lines. This he did, endowing it with all his wealth, and 
in a series of carefully drawn-up Statutes (R. 138), which were 
widely copied in subsequent foundations, Colet laid special em- 
phasis on the school giving training in the new learning and in 
Christian discipline. Erasmus gave much of his time for years to 
finding teachers and writing textbooks for the school. William 
Lily (1468-15 2 2), another early humanist recently returned from 
study in Italy, and the author of a widely known and much used 
textbook — Lily^s Latin Grammar (R. 140) — was made head- 
master of the school. 

Tke course of study was of the humanistic type already de- 
scribed, coupled with careful religious instruction. In place of 
the monkish Latin pure Latin and Greek were to be taught, and 
the best classical authors took the place of the old mediaeval dis- 
ciplines. The school met with much opposition, was denounced 
as a temple of idolatry and heathenism by the men of the old 
schools, and even the Bishop of London tried twice to convict 
Colet of heresy and suppress the instruction. Notwithstanding 



148 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

this the school became famous for its work, not only in London 
but throughout England. From its desks came a long line of 
capable statesmen, learned clergy, brilliant scholars, and literary 
men. 

Influence on other English grammar schools. In a preceding 
chapter (p. 148) we mentioned the founding of many English 
grammar schools after 1200. At the time Saint Paul's School 
was refounded there were something like three hundred of these, 
of all classes, in England. They existed in connection with the 
old monasteries, cathedrals, collegiate churches, guilds, and char- 
ity foundations in connection with parish churches, while a few 
were due to private benevolence and had been founded independ- 
ently of either Church or State. The Sevenoaks Grammar 
School, founded by the will of William Sevenoaks, in 1432 (R. 
141), and for which he stated in his will that he desired as master 
"an honest man, sufficiently advanced and expert in the science 
of Grammar, B.A., by no means in holy orders," and the chantry 
grammar school founded by John Percy vail, in 1503 (R. 142), are 
examples of the parish type. The famous Winchester Public 
School, founded by Bishop WiUiam of Wykeham, in 1382, to em- 
phasize grammar, religion, and manners, and to prepare seventy 
scholars for New College, at Oxford, where they were to be 
trained as priests; and Eton College, founded by Henry VI, in 
1440, to prepare students for King's College, at Cambridge, are 
examples of the larger private foundations. A few, such as the 
grammar school at Sandwich (1579), owed their origin (R. 143) to 
the initiative of the city authorities. Most of these grammar 
schools were small, but a few were large and wealthy establish- 
ments. 

These old foundations, with their mediaeval curriculum, after a 
time began to feel the influence of Colet's school. Within a cen- 
tury, due to one influence or another, practically all had been re- 
modeled after the new classical type set up by Colet. In the 
course of study given for Eton (R. 144), for 1560, we see the new 
learning fully established, and in the course of study for a small 
country grammar school, in 1635 (R. 145), we see how fully the 
new learning, with its emphasis on Latin as a living language, had 
by this time extended to even the smallest of the Enghsh grammar 
schools. The new foundations, after 15 10, were almost entirely 
new-learning grammar schools, with large emphasis on grammar, 
good Latin and Greek, games and sports, and the religious spirit. 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL 149 

The reaction against mediaevalism. Having traced the intro- 
duction of the new learning by countries, it still remains to point 
out certain significant educational features of the movement 
which were common in all lands, and which profoundly modified 
subsequent educational practice. Both the purpose and the 
method of education were permanently changed. 

Up to about the middle of the fourth Christian century the aim 
of both Greek and Roman education had been to prepare men to 
become good and useful citizens in the State. Then the Church 
gained control of education, and for a thousand years the chief 
object was to prepare for the world to come. Success and good 
citizenship in this world counted for little, religious devotion took 
the place of the old state patriotism, the salvation of souls took the 
place of the promotion of the social welfare, and the aim and end 
of life here was to attain everlasting bliss in the world to come. 
To be able to appease the dread Judge at the Day of Judgment, 
prayer, penance, and holy contemplation were the important 
things here below. It was preeminently the age of the self-abas- 
ing monk, and this mental attitude dominated all thinking and 
learning. 

The spirit behind the Revival of Learning was a protest against 
this mediaeval attitude, and the protest was vigorous and success- 
ful. The Revival of Learning was a clear break with mediaeval 
traditions and with mediaeval authority. It restored to the world 
the ideals of earher education — self-culture, and preparation for 
usefulness and success in the world here. In Italy, France, Ger- 
many, and England the movement, too, met with the most thor- 
ough approval from modern men — merchants, court officials, 
and scholars who were ready to break with the mediaeval type of 
thinking. The court and other types of secondary schools now 
established were. popular with the higher classes in society, and 
this aristocratic stamp the humanistic schools and courses have 
ever since retained. These schools restored to the world the prac- 
tical education of the'days of Cicero, and preparation for intelli- 
gent~service in the Church, State, and the larger business Hfe be- 
came one of their important purposes. Supported as they were 
by the ruHng classes, the new schools were close to the most pro- 
gressive forces in the national life of the different countries. They 
represented an unmistakable reaction against the world of the 
mediaeval monk and the Scholastic, and their early success was in 
large part because of this. 



I50 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The schools become formal. After the new learning had ob- 
tained a firm footing in the schools there happened what has often 
happened in the history of new educational efforts — that is, the 
new learning became narrow, formal, and fixed, and lost the lib- 
eral spirit which actuated its earlier promoters. In the beginning 
the Italian humanists had aimed at large personal self-culture and 
individual development, and the northern humanists at moral 
and rehgious reform and preparation for useful service, both using 
the classics as a means to these new ends. After about 1500 in 
Italy, and 1600 in the northern countries, when the new-learning 
schools had become well established and thoroughly organized, 
the tendency arose to make the means an end in itself. Instead 
of using the classical literatures to impart a liberal education, give 
larger vision, and prepare for useful public service, they came to 
be used largely for disciplinary ends. The teaching of Campion 
at Prague (1574) well illustrates this degeneracy (R. 146). 

In consequence the aim of the new humanistic education came 
in time to be thought of in terms of languages and literatures, in- 
stead of in terms of usefulness as a preparation for intelligent liv- 
ing, and educational effort was transferred from the larger human 
point of view of the early humanistic teachers to the narrower and 
much less important one of mastering Greek and Latin, writing 
verses, and cultivating a good (Ciceronian) Latin style. As a 
result of this change in aim and purpose, classical education grad- 
ually became narrow and formal, and drill in composition and 
declamation and imitation of the style of ancient authors — par- 
ticularly Cicero, whence the term " Ciceronianism " which came 
to be applied to it — • grew to be the ruling motives in instruction. 
By the end of the sixteenth century this change had taken place 
in both the secondary schools and the universities, and this nar- 
row linguistic attitude continued to dominate classical education, 
in German lands until the mid-eighteenth, and in all other west- 
ern European countries and in America until near the middle of 
the nineteenth, century. 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Explain just what is meant by the statement that mediaeval education 
was narrowly technical. 

2. State the educational ideals of the new secondary schools evolved by the 
Italian humanistic scholars, and show whether these ideals have been 
best embodied in the German gymnasium or the English grammar school. 

3. How do you explain the merchants and bankers and princes of Italy 



EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE REVIVAL 151 

being more interested in the revival-of-learning movement than the 
Church and university scholars? Do such classes to-day show the same 
type of interest in aiding learning? 
4. What was the particular importance of the recovery of Quintihan's 

Institutes? Of Cicero's Orations and Letters? .^, ^ 

V 5. Show how the type of education developed in the Italian court schools ft^^M a 
was superior to that of the best of the cathedral schools. To that devel- 3-** *^ 
oped by Sturm. ' p ' 'J 1 

6. Show how the new type of secondary schools was naturally associated 
with court and nobility and men of large worldly affairs, and how in 
consequence the new secondary education became and for long con- 
tinued to be considered as aristocratic education. 

7. Had the purified Latin been restored, as the general international lan- 
guage of learning and government, would it have helped materially in 
bringing about the civilizing influences Erasmus saw in it? 

* 8. Has the development of separate nationahties and different national 
languages aided in advancing international peace and civihzatiori? 
Why? 
9. Why should the new humanistic studies have developed religious fervor 
in Germany and England, in place of the patriotic fervor of the Italian 
scholars? 

10. Contrast the aim of Sturm's school with that of the Italian court schools, 
and the English grammar schools. Point out the new tendencies in his 
work. 

11. Show how it was natural that the first American school should have been 
a Latin grammar school in type. 

12. Show that the new conception as to education, as expressed by the new 
humanism, found a public ready to support it. What was the nature of 
this public? 

13. Show how the new schools were "close to the most progressive forces in 
the national life," and the influence of this, particularly in England and 
America, in fixing classical training as the approved type of secondary 
education. 

14. Explain how the written theme of to-day is the successor of the mediaeval 
disputation. 

15. Show how the methods of instruction employed in the new Latin gram- 
mar schools have been passed over to the native-language schools. 

16. Show how instruction in Latin, by being changed from cultural to disci- 
plinary ends, made French the language of diplomacy and society, 
tended to elevate all the vernacular tongues, and marked the beginnings 
of the end of the importance of Latin as a school study except for the 
purposes of the Roman Catholic Church. 

17. Does it require a higher quality of teaching to impart the cultural aspect 
of a study than is required for the disciplinary? 



SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

135* Guarino: On Teaching the Classical Authors. 

136. Vinet: The College de Guyenne at Bordeaux. 

137. Sturm: Course of Study at Strassburg. 

138. Colet: Statutes for St. Paul's School, London. 

(a) Religious Observances. 



152 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

(b) Admission of Children. 

(c) The Course of Study. 

139. Ascham: On Queen Elizabeth's Learning. 

140. Colet: Introduction to Lily's Latin Grammar. 

141. William Sevenoaks: Foundation Bequest for Sevenoaks Grammar 

School. 

142. John Percyvall: Foundation Bequest for a Chantry Grammar School. 

143. Sandwich: A City Grammar School Foundation. 

144. Eton: Course of Study in 1560. 

145. Martindale : Course of Study in an English Country Grammar School. 

146. Simpson: Degeneracy of Classical Instruction. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 
Jebb, R. C. Humanism in Education. 

Laurie, S. S. Development of Educational Opinion since the Renaissance. 
Laurie, S. S. "The Renaissance and the School, 1440-1580"; in School 
Review, vol. 4, pp. 140-48, 202-14. 
*Lupton, J. H. A Life of John Colet. 
Palgrave, F. T. "The Oxford Movement in the Fifteenth Century"; 

in Nineteenth Century, vol. 28, pp. 812-30. (Nov. 1890.) 
Seebohm, F. The Oxford Reformers of 1498; Colet, Erasmus, More. 
*Stowe, A. M. English Grammar Schools in the Reign of Queen Eli?aheth. 
*Thurber, C. H. " Vittorino da Feltre"; in School Review, vol. 7, pp. 295- 
300. 
Watson, Foster. English Grammar Schools to 1660. 
* Woodward, W. H. Vittorino da Feltre, and other Humanistic Educators. 
*Woodward, W. H. Education during the Renaissance. 
Woodward, W. H. Desiderius Erasmus, Concerning the Method and Aim 
of Education. 



>2^ 



t)^dj^^ 



CHAPTER XII 
THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY 

The new questioning attitude. The student can hardly have 
followed the history of educational development thus far without 
realizing that a serious questioning of the practices and of the 
dogmatic and repressive attitude of the omnipresent mediaeval 
Church was certain to come, sooner or later, unless the Church 
itself realized that the mediaeval conditions which once demanded 
such an attitude were rapidly passing away, and that the new life 
in Christendom now called for a progressive stand in religious 
matters as in other affairs. The new life resulting from the Cru- 
sades, the rise of commerce and industry, the organization of city 
governments, the rise of lawyer and merchant classes, the forma- 
tion of new national States, the rise of a new "Estate" of trades- 
men and workers, the new knowledge, the evolution of the uni- 
versity organizations, and the discovery of the art of printing — 
all these forces had united to develop a new attitude toward the 
old problems and to prepare western Europe for a rapid evolution 
out of the mediaeval conditions which had for so long dominated 
all action and thinking. This the Church should have realized, 
and it should have assumed toward the progressive tendencies of 
the time the same intelligent attitude assumed earlier toward the 
rise of scholastic inquiry. But it did not, and by the fifteenth 
century the situation had been further aggravated by a marked 
decline in morahty on the part of both monks and clergy, which 
awakened deep and general criticism in all lands, but particularly 
among the northern peoples. 

The Revival of Learning was the first clear break with mediae- 
valism. In the critical and constructive attitude developed by 
the scholars of the movement, their renunciation of the old forms 
of thinking, the new craving for tr«th for its own sake which they 
everywhere awakened, and their continual appeal to the original 
sources of knowledge for guidance, we have the definite begin- 
nings of a modern scientific spirit which was destined ultimately 
to question all things, and in time to usher in modern conceptions 
and modern ways of thinking. The authority of the mediaeval 
Church would be questioned, and out of this questioning would 



154 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

come in time a religious freedom .and a religious tolerance un- 
known in the mediaeval world. The great world of scientific 
truth would be inquired into and the facts of modern science es- 
tabhshed, regardless of what preconceived ideas, popular or re- 
ligious, might be upset thereby. The divine right of kings to rule, 
and to dispose of the fortunes and happiness of their peoples as 
they saw fit, was also destined to be questioned, and another new 
"Estate" would in time arise and substitute, instead, in all pro- 
gressive lands, the divine right of the common people. Religious 
freedom and toleration, scientific inquiry and scholarship, and 
the ultimate rise of democracy were all involved in the critical, 
questioning, and constructive attitude of the humanistic scholars 
of the Renaissance. These came historically in the order just 
stated, and in this order we shall consider them. 

Humanism became a religious reform movement in the North. 
In Italy the Revival of Learning was classical and scientific in its 
methods and results, and awakened little or no tendency toward 
religious and moral reform. Instead it resulted in something of a 
paganization of reUgion, with the result that the Papacy and the 
Italian Church probably reached their lowest religious levels at 
about the time the great religious agitation took place in northern 
lands. In the latter, on the contrary, the introduction of human- 
ism awakened a new religious zeal, and religious reform and classi- 
cal learning there came to be associated almost as one movement. 
In England, Germany, the Low Countries, and in large parts of 
northern France, the new learning was at once directed to reHg- 
ious and moral ends. The patriotic emotions roused in the Ital- 
ians by the humanistic movement were in the northern countries 
superseded by religious and moral emotions, and the constant ap- 
peal to sources turned the northern leaders almost at once back to 
the Church Fathers and the original Greek and Hebrew Testa- 
ments for authority in religious matters. 

Evolution or revolution. The reaction against the mediaeval 
dogmas of the Church and the demand by the humanists of the 
North for a return to the simpler religion of Christ gradually 
grew, and in time became more and more insistent. This demand 
was not something which broke out all at once and with Luther, 
as many seem to think. Had this been so he would soon have 
been suppressed, and Httle more would have been heard of him. 
Instead, the hterature of the time clearly reveals that there had 
been, for two centuries, an increasing criticism of the Church, and 



THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY 155 

a number of local and unsuccessful efforts at reform had been at- 
tempted. The demand for reform was general, and of long stand- 
ing, outside of Italy and southern France. Had it been heeded 
probably much subsequent history might have been different. 

In 1414 a Council of the Church was called at Constance, in 
Switzerland, to heal the papal schism, and this Council made a 
serious attempt at church reform. After reuniting the Church 
under one Pope, it drew up a Kst of abuses which it ordered rem- 
edied (R. 149). It also attempted to estabhsh a democratic form 
of organization for the government of the Church, with Church 
Councils meeting from time to time to advise with the Pope and 
formulate church policy, much like the government of a modern 
parliament and king. Had this succeeded, much future history 
might have been different and the civilization of the world to-day 
much advanced. But the attempt failed, and the absolutism of 
the reunited Papacy became stronger than ever before. Protests 
of princes, actions of legislative assembhes, protests sometimes of 
bishops, the failing allegiance of men of affairs, the increasing con- 
demnation and ridicule from laymen and scholars — all signs of a 
strong undercurrent of public opinion — seemed to have no effect 
on those responsible for the policy of the Church. 

That the different rebellions and refusals of reform helped di- 
rectly to the ultimate break of Luther is not probable, as Luther 
seems to have worked out his position by himself. Each of these 
earher defiances of authority and the later defiance of Luther 
were alike, though, in two respects. Each demanded a return 
to the usages and behefs and practices of the earlier Christian 
Church, as derived from a study of the Bible and of the writings 
of the early Christian Fathers; and each insisted that Christians 
should be permitted to study the Bible for themselves, and reach 
their own conclusions as to Christian duty. In this demand to 
be allowed to go back to the original sources for authority, and 
the assertion of the right to personal investigation and conclu- 
sions, we see the new intellectual standards estabHshed by the 
Revival of Learning in full force. After 1500 the rising demands 
for moral reform and the recognition of individual judgment 
could not be put aside much longer. Unless there could be evolu- 
tion there would be revolution. Evolution was refused, and 
revolution was the result. 

Discontent in German lands. It happened that the first revolt 
to be successful in a large way broke out in Germany, and about 



156 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the person of an Augustinian monk and Professor of Theology in 
the University of Wittenberg by the name of Martin Luther 
(1483-1 546) . Had it not centered about Luther the revolt would 
have come about some one else; had it not come in Germany it 
would have come in some other land. It was the modern scien- 
tific spirit of inquiry and reason in conflict with the mediaeval 
spirit of dogmatic authority, and two such forces are sooner or 
later destined to clash. Whether we be CathoHc or Protestant, 
and whether we approve or disapprove of what Luther did or of 
his methods, makes Httle difference in this study. Over a ques- 
tion involving so much religious partisanship we do not need to 
take sides. All that we need concern ourselves with is that a cer- 
tain Martin Luther lived, did certain things, made certain stands 
for what he believed to be right, and what he did, whether right 
or wrong, whether beneficial to progress and civilization or not, 
stands as a great historical fact with which the student of the his- 
tory of education must take account. That the same or even bet- 
ter results might have been arrived at in time by other methods 
may be true, but what we are concerned with is the course which 
history actually took. 

There were special reasons why the trouble, when once it broke, 
made such rapid headway in German lands. The Germans had a 
long-standing grudge against the Itahan papal court, chiefly be- 
cause it had for long been draining Germany of money to support 
the Italian Church. In fact it may be said that the whole Ger- 
man people, from the princes down to the peasants, felt them- 
selves unjustly treated, that the German money which flowed to 
Rome should be kept at home, and that the immoral and ineffi- 
cient clergy should be replaced by upright, earnest men who 
would attend better to their religious duties (R. 150). It was 
these conditions which prepared the Germans for revolt, and 
enabled Luther to rally so many of the princes and people to his 
side when once he had defied authority. 

The German revolt. The crisis came over the sale of indul- 
gences for sins by the papal agent, Tetzel, who began the practice 
in the neighborhood of Wittenberg, where Luther was a Professor 
of Theology, in 1516. There is little doubt but that Tetzel, in 
his zeal to raise money for the rebuilding of the church of Saint 
Peter's at Rome, a great undertaking then under way, exceeded 
his instructions and made claims as to the nature and efficacy of 
indulgences which were not warranted by church doctrines. 



THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY 157 



Such would be only human. The sale, however, irritated Luther, 
and he appealed to the Archbishop of Magdeburg to prohibit it. 
Failing to obtain any satisfaction, he followed the old university 




Fig. ^S' Showing the Results or the Protestant Revolts 



custom, made out ninety-five theses, or reasons, why he did not 
believe the practice justifiable, detailed the abuses, set forth what 
he conceived to be the true Christian doctrine in the matter, and 
challenged all comers to a debate on the theses (R. 151). Fol- 
lowing true university custom, also, these theses were made out in 
Latin, and in October, 1517, Luther followed still another univer- 
sity custom and nailed them to the church door in Wittenberg. 
Luther was probably as much surprised as any one to find that 
these were at once translated into German, printed, and in two 
weeks had been scattered all over Germany. Within a month 
they were known in all the important centers of the Western 
Christian world. They had been carried everywhere on the cur- 
rents of discontent. Luther at first intended no revolt from the 
Church, but only a protest against its practices. From one step 
to another, though, he was gradually led into open rebellion, and 



158 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



finally, in 1520, was excommunicated from the Church. He then 
expressed his defiance by publicly burning the bull of excommuni- 
cation, together with a volume of the canon law. This was open 
rebellion, and such heresy (R. 152) must needs be stamped out. 
Luther took his stand on the authority of the Scriptures, and the 
battle was now joined between the forces representing the author- 
ity of the Church versus the authority of the Bible, and salvation 
through the Church versus salvation through personal faith and 
works. Luther also forced the issue for freedom of thought in 
religious matters. It was, to be sure, some three centuries before 
freedom in religious thinking and worship became clearly recog- 
nized, but what the early university masters and scholars had 
stood for in intellectual matters, Luther now asserted in religious 
affairs as well. 

We do not need to follow the details of the conflict. Suffice it 
to know that great portions of northern and western Germany 
followed Luther, as is shown in Figure 33, and that the Western 
Church, which had remained one for so many centuries and been 
the one great unifying force in western Europe, was permanently 
spHt by the Protestant Revolt. The large success of Luther is 
easily explained by the new Hfe which now permeated western 
Europe. The world was rapidly becoming modern, while the 
Church, with a perversity almost unexplainable, insisted upon re- 
maining mediaeval and tried to force others to remain mediaeval 
with it. 

Revolts in other lands. The outbreak in 
Germany soon spread to other lands. Luth- 
eranism made rapid headway in Denmark, 
where the German grievances against Ital- 
ian rule were equally famiHar, and in 1537 
the Danish Diet severed all connection with 
Rome and estabhshed Lutheranism as the 
religion of the country. Norway, being then 
a part of Denmark, was carried for Luther- ^ 
anism also. In Sweden the Church was f 
shorn of some of its powers and property in I 
1527, and in 1592 Lutheranism was defi- j 
nitely adopted as the rehgion for thq na- I 
tion. This included Finland, then a part / 
of Sweden. An independent reform movement, closely akin to / 
Lutheranism in its aims, made considerable headway in Ger-f 




Fig. 34. HuLDREiCH 
ZwiNGLi (1487-1531) 



THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY 



159 



man Switzerland contemporaneously with the reform work of 
Luther in Germany. This was under the leadership of a popu- 
lar humanist preacher in Zurich by the name of Huldreich 
Zwingli. 

In England the struggle came nominally over the divorce (1533) 
of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon, though the independ- 
ence of the English Church had been asserted from time to time 
for two centuries, and a free National Church had for long been 
a growing ideal with English statesmen. In 1534 Parliament 
passed the Act of Supremacy (R. 153) which severed England 
from Rome. By it the King was made head of the English Na- 
tional Church. The change was in no sense a profound one, such 
as had taken place in Lutheran Germany. The priests who took 
the new oath of allegiance to the King instead of the Pope as the 
head of the Church, as most of them did, continued in the 
churches, the service was changed to English, some reforms were 
instituted, but the people did not experience any great change in 
religious feeling or ideas. This new National Church became 
known as the EngHsh or Anglican Church. 

So far as the early history of America is concerned, the most 
important reform movement was nei- 
ther Lutheranism nor Anglicanism, but 
Calvinism. In 1537 John Calvin, a 
French Protestant who had fled to 
Switzerland, was invited to submit a 
plan for the educational and religious 
reorganization of the city of Geneva, 
and in 1541 he was entrusted with the 
task of organizing there a Kttle religi- 
ous City-RepubHc. For this he estab- 
lished a combined church and city 
government, in which religious affairs 
and the civil government were as 
closely connected as they had ever 
been in any Catholic country. Dur- 
ing the twenty- three years that Calvin 
dominated Geneva it became the Rome 
of Protestantism. 

From Geneva a reformed Calvinistic religion spread over 
northern France, where its followers became known as Huguenots; 
to Scotland (1560) where they were known as Scotch Presbyterians; 




Fig. 35. John Calvin 

(i 509-1 564) 

(Drawn from a contemporary- 
painting) 



l6o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to the Netherlands (1572) where originated the Dutch Reformed 
Church; and to portions of central England, where those who em- 
braced it became known as Puritans. Through the Puritans who 
settled New England, and later through the Huguenots in the 
Carolinas, the Scotch Presbyterians in the central colonies, and 
the Dutch in New York, Calvinism was carried to America, was 
for long the dominant religious behef, and profoundly colored all 
early American education. Lutheranism also came in through 
the Swedes along the Delaware and the Germans in Pennsylvania, 
while the Anglican Church, known in / merica as the Episco- 
palian, came in through the landed aristocracy in Virginia and 
the latBr settlers in New York. The early settlement of America 
was thus a Protestant settlement, while the migration to America 
of large numbers of peoples from Catholic lands is a relatively 
recent movement. 

Religious freedom and religious warfare. Of course the revolt 
against the authority of the Church, once inaugurated, could not 
be stopped. The same right to freedom in religious belief which 
Luther claimed for himself and his followers had of course to be 
extended to others. This the Protestants were not much more 
willing to grant than had been the Cathohcs before them. The 
world was not as yet ready for such rapid advances, and religious 
toleration, though established in principle by the revolt, was an 
idea to which the world has required a long time to become accus- 
tomed. It took two centuries of intermittent religious warfare, 
during which' Catholic and Protestant waged war on one another, 
plundered and pillaged lands, and murdered one another for the 
salvation of their respective souls, before the people of western 
Europe were willing to stop fighting and begin to recognize for 
others that which they were fighting for for themselves. When 
religious tolerance finally became established by law, civilization 
had made a tremendous advance. 

Changed attitude toward the old problems. The Peace of 
Westphaha (1648), which ended the bloody Thirty Years' War, it- 
self the culmination of a century of bitter and vindictive religious 
strife, has often been regarded as both an end and a beginning. 
Though the persecution of minorities for a time continued, es- 
pecially in France, this treaty marked the end of the attempt 
of the Church and the Catholic States to stamp out Protestant- 
ism on the continent of Europe. The religious independence of 
the Protestant States was now acknowledged, and the begin- 



THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY i6i 

nings of religious freedom were established by treaty. This new 
freedom of conscience, once definitely begun for the ruling princes, 
was certain in time to be extended further. Ultimately the day 
must come, though it might be centuries away, when individual 
as well as national freedom in rehgious matters must be granted 
as a right, and one of the greatest blessings of mankind finally be 
firmly established by law. 

Physically exhausted, and recognizing at last the futility of fire 
and sword as means for stamping out opposing religious convic- 
tions, but still thoroughly convinced as to the correctness of their 
respective points of view, both sides now settled down to another 
century and more of religious hatred, suspicion, and intolerance, 
and to a close supervision of both preaching and teaching as safe- 
guards to orthodoxy. During the century following the Peace of 
Westphalia greater reliance than ever before was placed on the 
school as a means for protecting the faith, and the pulpit and the 
school now took the place of the sword and the torch as convert- 
ing and holding agents. 

Religious reform. The effect of the Protestant Revolts on the 
Church was good. For the first time in history Catholic church- 
men learned that they could not rely on the general acceptance of 
any teachings they promulgated, or any practices they saw fit to 
approve. The spirit of inquiry which had been aroused by the 
methods of the humanists would in the future force them to ex- 
plain and to defend. If they were to make headway against this 
great rebelHon they must reform abuses, purify church practices, 
and see that monks and clergy led upright Christian lives. Un- 
less the mass of the people could be made loyal to the Church by 
reverence for it, further revolts and the ultimate break-up of the 
institution were in prospect. The Council of Trent (1545-63) at 
last undertook the reform which should have come at least a cen- 
tury before. Better men were selected for the church offices, and 
bishops and clergy were ordered to reside in their proper places 
and to preach regularly. New religious orders arose, whose pur- 
pose was to prepare priests better for the service of the Church 
and for ministry to the needs of the people. Irritating practices 
were abandoned. The laws and doctrines of the Church were re- 
stated, in new and better form. Moral reforms were instituted. 
In most particulars the reforms forced by the work of Luther were 
thorough and complete, and since the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury the Catholic Church, in morals and government, has been a 



i62 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

reformed Church. Above all, attention was turned to education 
rather than force as a means of winning and holding territory. A 
rigid quarantine was, however, established in Catholic lands 
against the further spread of heretical textbooks and literature. 
Especially was the reading of the Bible, which had been the cause 
of all the trouble, for a time rigidly prohibited. 

Such, in brief, are the historical facts connected with the various 
revolts against authority which split the Roman Catholic Church 
in the sixteenth century. These have been stated, as briefly and 
as impartially as possible, because so much of future educational 
history arose out of the conditions resulting from these revolts. 
The early educational history of America is hardly understand- 
able without some knowledge of the religious forces awakened 
by the work of the Protestants. To the educational significance 
and consequences of these revolts we next turn. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. How do you explain the difference in the effect, on the scholars of the 
time, of the Revival of Learning in Italy and in northern lands? 

2. How do you explain the serious church opposition to the different at- 
tempts of northern scholars to try to turn the Church back to the simpler 
religious ideals and practices of early Christianity? 

3. Explain how opposition to the practices of the Church could be organ- 
ized into a political force. 

4. Explain the analogy of a heretic in the fifteenth century and an anarchist 
of to-day. 

5. Assuming that the Church had encouraged progressive evolution as a 
policy, and thus warded off revolution and disruption, in what ways 
might history have been different? 

6. How can the bitter opposition to the reading and study of the Bible be 
explained? 

7. Show the analogy between the freedom of thinking demanded by Luther, 
and that obtained three centuries earlier by the scholars in the rising 
universities. Why were the universities not opposed? 

8. Enumerate the changes which had taken place in western Europe be- 
tween the days of Wycliffe and Huss and the time of Luther, which en- 
abled him to succeed where they had failed. 

9. Explain in what ways the Protestant Revolt was essentially a revolution 
in thinking, and that, once started, certain other consequences must 
inevitably follow in time. 

10. Was it perfectly natural that the reformers should refuse to their follow- 
ers the same right to revolt, and separate off into smaller and still differ- 
ent sects, which they had contended for for themselves? Why? 

11. On what basis could Catholic and Protestant wage war on one another 
to try to enforce their own particular belief? 



THE REVOLT AGAINST AUTHORITY 163 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are rep o- 
diiced: 

147. Wycliffe: On the Enemies of Christ. 

148. Wychffites: Attack the Pope and the Practice of Indulgences. 

149. Council of Constance: List of Church Abuses demanding Reform. 

150. Geiler: A German Priest's View as to Coming Reform. 

151. Luther: Illustrations from his Ninety-Five Theses. 

152. Saint Thomas Aquinas: On the Treatment of Heresy. 

153. Henry VHI: The English Act of Supremacy. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 
Beard, Charles. Martin Luther and the Reformation. 
Beard, Charles. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation 

to Modern Thought and Knowledge. (Hibbert Lectures, 1883.) 
Fisher, George P. History of the Reformation. 
Gasquet, F. A. Eve of the Reformation. 
Johnson, A. H. Europe in the Sixteenth Century. 
Perry, George G. History of the Reformation in England^ 



CHAPTER XIII 

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 
REVOLTS 

I. AMONG LUTHERANS AND ANGLICANS 

Ultimate consequences of the break with authority. That the 
Protestant Revolts in the difYerent lands produced large immedi- 
ate and permanent changes in the character of the education pro- 
vided in the revolting States is no longer accepted as being the 
case. In every phase of educational history growth has pro- 
ceeded by evolution rather than by revolution, and this applies to 
the Protestant Revolts as well as to other revolutions. Many 
changes naturally resulted at once, some of which were good and 
some of which were not, while others which were enthusiastically 
attempted failed of results because they involved too great ad- 
vances for the time. Much, too, of the progress that was inaugu- 
rated was lost in the more than a century of religious strife which 
followed, and the additional century and more of suspicion, ha- 
tred, religious formalism, and strict religious conformity which 
followed the period of religious strife. The educational signifi- 
cance of the reformation movement, though, lies in the far-reach- 
ing nature of its larger results and ultimate consequences rather 
than in its immediate accomplishments, and because of this the 
importance of the immediate changes effected have been over- 
estimated by Protestants and underestimated by Catholics. 

The dominant idea underlying Luther's break with authority, 
and for that matter the revolts of Wycliffe, Huss, Zwingh, and 
Calyin as well, was that of substituting the authority of the Bible 
in religious matters for the authority of the Church; of substitut- 
ing individual judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures 
and in formulating decisions as to Christian duty for the collective 
judgment of the Church; and of substituting individual respon- 
sibility for salvation, in Luther's conception of justification 
through personal faith and prayer, for the collective responsibihty 
for salvation of the Church. Whether one believes that the 
Protestant position was sound or not depends almost entirely 
upon one's religious training and beliefs, and need not concern 
us here, as it makes no difference with the course of history. We 



RESULTS AMONG LUTHERANS 165 

can believe either way, and the course that history took remains 
the same. The educational consequences of the position taken 
by the Protestants, though, are important. 

Under the older theory of collective judgment and collective 
responsibility for salvation — that is, the judgment of the Church 
rather than that of individuals — it was not important that more 
than a few be educated. Under the new theory of individual 
judgment and individual responsibility promulgated by the Prot- 
estants it became very important, in theory at least, that every 
one should be able to read the word of God, participate intelli- 
gently in the church services, and shape his life as he understood 
was in accordance with the commandments of the Heavenly 
Father. This undoubtedly called for the education of all. Still 
more, from individual participation in the services of the Church, 
with freedom of judgment and personal responsibihty in religious 
matters, to individual participation in and responsibility for the 
conduct of government was not a long step, and the rise of demo- 
cratic governments and the provision of universal education were 
the natural and ultimate corollaries, though not immediately 
attained, of the Protestant position regarding the interpretation 
of the Scriptures and the place and authority of the Church. This 
was soon seen and acted upon. The great struggle of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries, in consequence, became one for reli- 
gious freedom and toleration; the great struggle of the eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries has been for poHtical freedom and poHt- 
ical rights; to supply universal education has been left to the nine- 
teenth and the twentieth centuries. 

A new demand for vernacular schools. The invention of print- 
ing and the Protestant Revolts were in a sense two revolutionary 
forces, which in combination soon produced vast and far-reaching 
changes. The discovery of the process of making paper and the 
invention of the printing-press changed the whole situation as to 
books. These could now be reproduced rapidly and in large num- 
bers, and could be sold at but a small fraction of their former cost. 
The printing of the Bible in the common tongue did far more to 
stimulate a desire to be able to read than did the Revival of 
Learning (Rs. 155, 170). Then came the religious discussions of 
the Reformation period, which stirred intellectually the masses 
of the people in northern lands as nothing before in history had 
ever done. 

The leaders of the Protestant Revolts, too, in asserting that 



i66 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

each person should be able to read and study the Scriptures as a 
means to personal salvation, created an entirely new demand, in 
Protestant lands, for elementary schools in the vernacular. Here- 
tofore the demand had been for schools only for those who ex- 
pected to become scholars or leaders in Church or State, while 
the masses of the people had little or no interest in learning. Now 
a new class became desirous of learning to read, not Latin, but the 
language which they had already learned to speak. Luther, 
besides translating the Bible, had prepared two general Cate- 
chisms, one for adults and one for children, had written hymns, 
and issued numerous letters and sermons in behalf of religious 
education. In his sermons and addresses he urged a study of the 
Bible and the duty of sending children to school. Calvin's Cate- 
chism similarly was extensively used in Protestant lands. 

I. Lutheran School Organization 

Educational ideas of Luther. Luther enunciated the most 
progressive ideas on education of all the German Protestant re- 
formers. In his Letter to the Mayors and Aldermen of all the Cities 
of Germany in behalf of Christian Schools (1524) (R. 156), and in 
his Sermon on the Duty of Sending Children to School (1530), we 
find these set forth. That his ideas could be but partially carried 
out is not surprising. There were but few among his followers 
who could understand such progressive proposals, they were 
entirely too advanced f6r the time, there was no body of vernacu- 
lar teachers or means to prepare them, the importance of such 
training was not understood, and the religious wars which fol- 
lowed made such educational advantages impossible, for a long 
time to come. The sad condition of the schools, which he said 
were "deteriorating throughout Germany," awakened his deep 
regret, and he begged of those in authority "not to think of the 
subject lightly, for the instruction of youth is a matter in which 
Christ and all the world are concerned." All towns had to spend 
money for roads, defense, bridges, and the like, and why not some 
for schools? This they now could easily afford, "since Divine 
Grace has released them from the exaction and robbery of the 
Roman Church." Parents continually neglected their educational 
duty, yet there must be civil government. "Were there neither 
soul, heaven, nor hell," he declared, "it would still be necessary 
to have schools for the sake of affairs here below. . . . The world 
has need of educated men and women to the end that men may 



RESULTS AMONG LUTHERANS 167 

govern the country properly and women may properly bring up 
their children, care for their domestics, and direct the affairs of 
their households." ''The welfare of the State depends upon the 
intelligence and virtue of its citizens," he said, ''and it is therefore 
the duty of mayors and aldermen in all cities to see that Christian 
schools are founded and maintained" (R. 156). 

The parents of children he held responsible for their Christian 
and civic education. This must be free, and equally open to all 
— boys and girls, high and low, rich and poor. It was the inher- 
ent right of each child to be educated, and the State must not only 
see that the means are provided, but also require attendance at 
the schools (R. 158). At the basis of all education lay Christian 
education. The importance of the services of the teacher was 
beyond ordinary comprehension (R. 157). Teachers should be 
trained for their work, and clergymen should have had experience 
as teachers. A school system for German people should be a 
state system, divided into: 

1. Vernacular Primary Schools. Schools for the common people, 
to be taught in the vernacular, to be open to both sexes, to include 
reading, writing, physical training, singing, and religion, and to give 
practical instruction in a trade or in household duties. Upon this 
attendance should be compulsory. " It is my opinion," he said, "that 
we should send boys to school for one or two hours a day, and have 
them learn a trade at home the rest of the time. It is desirable that 
these two occupations march side by side." 

2. Latin Secondary Schools. Upon these he placed great emphasis 
(R. 156) as preparatory schools by means of which a learned clergy 
was to be perpetuated for the instruction of the people. In these he 
would teach Latin, Greek, Hebrew, rhetoric, dialectic, history, science, 
mathematics, music, and gymnastics. 

3. The Universities. For training for the higher service in Church 
and State. 

Early German state school systems. The first German State 
to organize a complete system of schools was Wlirtemberg (R. 
162), in southwestern Germany, in 1559. This marks the real 
beginning of the German state school systems. Three classes 
of schools were provided for: 

(i) Elementary schools, for both sexes, in which were to be taught 
reading, writing, reckoning, singing, and religion, all in the vernacular. 
These were to be provided in every village in the Duchy. 

(2) Latin schools {Particularschulen) , with five or six cl-asses, in which 
the ability to read, write, and speak Latin, together with the elements 
of mathematics and Greek in the last year, were to be taught. 



l68 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

(3) The universities or colleges of the State, of which the University 
of Tubingen (f. 1476) and the higher school at Stuttgart were declared 
to be constituent parts. 

Acting through the church authorities, these schools were to be 
under the supervision of the State. 

The example of Wiirtemberg was followed by a number of the 
smaller German States. Ten years later Brunswick followed the 
same plan, and in 1580 Saxony revised its school organization 
after the state-system plan thus established. In 16 19 the Duchy 
of Weimar added compulsory education in the vernacular for all 
children from six to twelve years of age. In 1642, the same date 
as the first Massachusetts school law (chapter xv), Duke Ernest 
the Pious of little Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg estabhshed the 
first school system of a modern type in German lands. An 
intelligent and ardent Protestant, he attempted to elevate his 
miserable peasants, after the ravages of the Thirty Years' War, 
by a wise economic administration and universal education. 
With the help of a disciple of the greatest educational thinker of 
the period, John Amos Comemus (chapter xvii), he worked out 
a School Code {Schulmethode, 1642) which was the pedagogic 
masterpiece of the seventeenth century (R. 163). In it he pro- 
vided for compulsory school attendance, and regulated the details 
of method, grading, and courses of study. Teachers were paid sal- 
aries which for the time were large, pensions for their widows and 
children were provided, and textbooks were prepared and sup- 
plied free. So successful were his efforts that Gotha became one 
of the most prosperous little spots in Europe, and it was said 
that ''Duke Ernest's peasants were better educated than noble- 
men anywhere else." 

By the middle of the seventeenth century most of the German 
States had followed the Wiirtemberg plan of organization. Even 
Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria, which was a Catholic State, or- 
dered the establishment of "German schools" throughout his 
realm, with instruction in reading, writing, and the CathoHc 
creed, the schools to be responsible through the Church to the 
State. 

Protestant state school organization. We see here in German 
lands a new, and, for the future, a very important tendency. 
Throughout all the long Middle Ages the Church had absolutely 
controlled all education. From the suppression of the pagan 
schools, in 579 a.d., to the time of the Reformation there had been 



RESULTS AMONG LUTHERANS 



169 



no one to dispute with the Church its complete monopoly of edu- 
cation. Even Charlemagne's attempt at the stimulation of edu- 
cational activity had been clearly within the hnes of church con- 
trol. Until the beginnings of the modern States, following the 
Crusades, the Church had 



Roman Catholic 
CHURCH 
State School 



The 
Middle 
Ages 



Lutheran 



State - Church - School 



Early 

Reformation 

Period. 

Bujjenhagen 
Melanchthon 



State 4 



Church 



School 



Later 

Reformatioa 

Period. 

Saxony 

Wiirtemberg 

Gotha 

Bavaria 



GERMAN STATES 



iGerman Schools! 
1 ^ k_j 



Lutheran 
Church 



Catholic 
Church 



The 

Nineteenth 

•Century 

Prussia 

Saxony 

Wurtembargr 

Bavaria 

Baden 



Fig. 36. Evolution of German 
State School Control 



been the State as well, and 
for long humbled any ruler 
who dared dispute its power. 
In the later Middle Ages 
nobles and rising parliaments 
had at times sided with the 
king against the Church — • 
warnings of a changing Eu- 
rope that^the Church should 
have heeded — but there had 
been no serious trouble with 
the rising nationalities before 
the sixteenth century. Now, 
in Protestant lands, all was 
changed. The authority of 
the Church was overthrown. 
By the Peace of Augsburg 
(1555) each German prince and town and knight were to be 
permitted to make choice between the Catholic and Lutheran 
faith, and all subjects were to accept the faith of their ruler or 
emigrate. 

This established freedom of conscience for the rulers, but for 
no one else. It also gave them control of both religious and secu- 
lar affairs, thus uniting in the person of the ruler, large or small, 
control of both Church and State. This was as much progress 
toward religious freedom as the world was then ready for, as 
Church and State had been united for so many centuries that a 
complete separation of the two was almost inconceivable. It was 
left for the United States (1787) to completely divorce Church 
and State, and to reduce the churches to the control of purely 
spiritual affairs. 

The German rulers, however^ were now free to develop schools 
as they saw fit, and, through their headship of the Church in their 
principality or duchy or city, to control education therein. We 
have here the beginnings of the transfer of educational control 
fron. the Church to the State, the ultimate fruition of which came 



RESULTS AMONG ANGLICANS 171 

tion, and hence the need of all being taught to read, made scarcely 
any impression in England. 

By the time of Elizabeth (1558-1603) it had become a settled 
conviction with the Enghsh as a people that the provision of edu- 
cation was a matter for the Churchy and was'no business of the 
State, and this attitude continued until well into the nineteenth 
century. The English Church merely succeeded the Roman 
Church in the control of education, and now licensed the teach- 
ers (R. 168), took their oath of allegiance (R. 167), supervised 
prayers (R. 169) and the instruction, and became very strict as 
to conformity to the new faith (Rs. i64-i66)^_whiie the schools, 
aside from the private tuition and endowed schools, continued to 
be maintained chiefly from religious sources, charitable funds, 
and tuition fees. Private t u ition scho ols in time flourished^ and 
the tutor in the home became the rule with families of means. 
The poorer people largely did without schooling, as they had done 
for centuries before. As a consequence, the educational results 
of the change in the headship of the Church relate almost entirely 
to grammar schools and to the universities, and not to elementary 
education. The development of anything approaching a system 
of elementary schools for England was consequently left for 
the educational awakening of the latter half of the nineteenth 
century. When this finally came the development was due to 
pohtical and economic, and not to religious causes. 

Result of the Reformation in England. The result of the 
change in religious allegiance in England was a material decrease 
in the number of places offering grammar-school advantages, 
though with a material improvement in the quality of the instruc- 
tion provided, and a consequent decrease in the number of boys 
given free education in the refounded grammar schools. As for 
elementary education, the abolition of the song, chantry, and 
hospital schools took away most of the elementary schools which 
had once existed. The clerk of the parish usually replaced them 
by teaching a certain number of boys "to read English intelli- 
gently instead of Latin unintelligently," many new parish ele- 
mentary schools were created, especially during the reign of 
Elizabeth, and in time the dame school, the charity school, the 
writing school, and apprenticeship training arose (chapter xviii) 
and became regular English institutions. These types of school- 
ing constituted almost all the elementary-school advantages pro- 
vided in England until.well into the eighteenth century. 



172 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The dominating religious purpose. The religious conflicts fol- 
lowing the reformation movement everywhere intensified reli- 
gious prejudices and stimulated religious bigotry. This was soon 
reflected in the schools of all lands. In England, after the resto- 
ration under Catholic Mary (1553-58) and the final reestablish- 
ment of the English Church under Elizabeth (1558), all school 
instruction became narrowly religious and EngHsh Protestant in 
type. By the middle of the seventeenth century the grammar 
schools had become nurseries of the faith, as weU as very formal 
and disciplinary in character. In England, perhaps more than in 
any other Protestant country, Christianity came to be identified 
with a strict conformity to the teachings and practices of the 
Established Church, and to teach that particular faith became 
one of the particular missions of all types of schools. Bishops 
were instructed to hunt out schoolmasters who were unsound in 
the faith (R. 164 a), and teachers were deprived of their positions 
for nonconformity (R. 164 b). More effectively to handle the 
problem a series of laws were enacted, the result of which was to 
institute such an inquisitorial policy that the position of school- 
master became almost intolerable. In 1580 a law (R. 165) im- 
posed a fine of £10 on any one employing a schoolmaster of 
unsound faith, with disability and imprisonment for the school- 
master so offending; in 1603 another law required a license from 
the bishop on the part of all schoolmasters as a condition prece- 
dent to teaching; in 1662 the obnoxious Act of Uniformity (R. 166) 
required every schoolmaster in any type of school, and all private 
tutors, to subscribe to a declaration that they would conform to 
the liturgy of the Church, as established by law, with fine and 
imprisonment for breaking the law; in 1665 the so-called *' Five- 
Mile Act" forbade Dissenters to teach in any school, under pen- 
alty of a fine of £40; and in that same year bishops were instructed 
to see that 

the said schoolmasters, ushers, schoolmistresses, and instructors, or 
teachers of youth, publicly or privately, do themselves frequent the 
public prayers of the Church, and cause their scholars to do the same; 
and whether they appear well affected to the Government of his 
Majesty, and the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England. 

This attitude also extended upward to the universities as well, 
where nonconformists were prohibited by law (1558) from re- 
ceiving degrees, a condition that was not remedied until 1869. 
The great purpose of instruction came -to be to support the 



RESULTS AMONG ANGLICANS 173 

authority and the rule of the Established Church, and the almost 
complete purpose of elementary instruction came to be to train 
pupils to read the Catechism, the Prayer Book, and the Bible. 
This intense religious attitude in England was reflected in early 
colonial America, as we shall see in a following chapter. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Why is progress that is substantial nearly always a product of slow rather 
than rapid evolution? 

2. Show why the evolution of many Protestant sects was a natural conse- 
quence of the position assumed by Luther. What is the ultimate out- 
come of the process? 

3. Why was it not important that more than a few be educated under the 
older theory of salvation? 

4. Show how modern democratic government was a natural consequence of 
the Protestant position. 

5. Why was universal education involved as a later but ultimate conse- 
quence of the position taken by the Protestants? 

6. Explain why the local Church authorities, before 1520, tried so hard to 
prevent the establishment of vernacular schools. 

7. Explain why the religious discussions of the Reformation should have 
so strongly stimulated a desire to read. 

8. Explain the fixing in character of the German, French, and English lan- 
guages by a single book. What had fixed the Italian? 

9. Was Luther probably right when he wrote, in 1524, that the schools 
"were deteriorating throughout Germany"? Why? 

10. Give reasons why Luther's appeals for schools were not more fruitful. 

11. What was the significance of the position of Luther for the future educa- 
tion of girls? 

12. Was Luther's idea that a clergyman should have had some experience as 
a teacher a good one, or not? Why? 

13. How do you explain Luther's ideas as to coupling up elementary and 
trade education in his primary schools? 

14. Point out the similarity of Luther's scheme for a school system with the 
German school system as finally evolved (Figure 36). 

15. Explain why the Lutheran idea of personal responsibility for salvation 
made so little headway in England, and show that the natural educa- 
tional consequences of this resulted. 

16. Show what different conditions were likely to follow, in later centuries, 
from the different stands taken as to the relation of the State and Church 
to education by the German people by the middle of the sixteenth 
century, and by the English at the time of Elizabeth. 

17. Compare the origin of the vernacular elementary-school teacher in 
Germany and England. 

18. Leach estimates that, in 1546, there were approximately three hundred 
grammar schools in England for a total population of approximately 
two and one half millions. About what opportunities for grammar- 
school education did this afford? 



174 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

154. Rashdall: Diffusion of Education in Mediaeval Times. 

155. Times: The Vernacular Style of the Translation of the Bible. 

156. Luther: To the Mayors and Magistrates of Germany. 

157. Luther: Dignity and Importance of the Teacher's Work. 

158. Luther: On the Duty of Compelling School Attendance. 

159. Hamburg: An Example of a Lutheran Kirchenordnung. 

160. Brieg: An Example of a Lutheran Schideordnung. 

161. Melanchthon: The Saxony School Plan. 

162. Raumer: The School System Established in Wiirtemberg. 

163. Duke Ernest: The Schulemeihodus for Gotha. 

164. Strype: The Supervision of a Teacher's Acts and Religious Beliefs 
in England. 

{a) Letter of Queen's Council on. 

{b) Dismissal of a Teacher for non-conformity. 

165. Elizabeth: Penalties on Non-conforming Schoolmasters. 

166. Statutes: English Act of Uniformity of 1662. 

167. CarHsle: Oath of a Grammar School Master. 

168. Strype: An English Elementary-School Teacher's License. 

169. Cowper: Grammar School Statutes regarding Prayers. 

170. Green: Effect of the Translation of the Bible into Enghsh. 

171. Old MS.: Ignorance of the Monks at Canterbury and Messenden. 

172. Parker: Refounding of the Cathedral School at Canterbury. 

173. Nicholls: Origin of the English Poor-Law of 1601. 

174. Statutes: The English Poor Law of 1601. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Adams, G. B. Civilization during the Middle Ages. 

Barnard, Henry. German Teachers and Educators. 

Francke, Kuno. Social Forces in German Literature. 
*Good, Harry E. "The Position of Luther upon Education," in School 

and Society, vol. 6, pp. 511-18 (Nov. 3, 191 7). 
*Montmorency, J. E. G. de. State Intervention in English Education. 
*Montmorency, J. E. G. de. The Progress of Education in England. 

Painter, F. V. N. Luther on Education. 

Paulsen, Fr. German Education. 

Richard, J. W. Phillpp Melanchthon, the Protestant Preceptor of Germany. 
^ Woodward, W. H. Education during the Renaissance. 



CHAPTER XIV 

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 
REVOLTS 

II. AMONG CALVINISTS AND CATHOLICS 

3. Educational work of the Calvinists 

The organizing work of Calvin. From the point of view of 
American educational history the most important developments 
in connection with the Reformation were those arising from 
Calvinism. While the Calvinistic faith was rather grim and for- 
bidding, viewed from the modern standpoint, the Calvinists 
everywhere had a program for pohtical, economic, and social 
progress which has left a deep impress on the history of mankind. 
This program demanded the education of all, and in the countries 
where Calvinism became dominant the leaders included general 
education in their scheme of rehgious, political, and social re- 
form. In the governmental program which Calvin drew up 
(1537) for the religious republic at Geneva (p. 159), he held that 
learning was "sl public necessity to secure good political adminis- 
tration, sustain the Church unharmed, and maintain humanity 
among men." 

In his plan for the schools of Geneva, published in 1538, he out- 
lined a system of elementary education in the vernacular for all, 
which involved instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, reli- 
gion, careful grammatical drill, and training for civil as well as 
for ecclesiastical leadership. In his plan of 1541 he upholds the 
principle, as had Luther, that "the liberal arts and good training 
are aids to a full knowledge of the Word." This involved the 
organization of secondary schools, or colleges as he called them, 
following the French nomenclature, to prepare leaders for the 
ministry and the civil government through "instruction in the 
languages and humane science." In the colleges (secondary 
schools) which he organized at Geneva and in neighboring places 
to give such training, and which became models of their kind 
which were widely copied, the usual humanistic curriculum was 
combined with intensive religious instruction. These colleges 
became famous as institutions from which learned men came 
forth. The course of study in the seven classes of one of the 



176 ^ BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Geneva colleges, which has been preserved for us, reveals the na- 
ture of the instruction (R. 175). The men who went forth from 
the colleges of Geneva to teach and to preach the Calvinistic gos- 
pel were numbered by the hundreds. 

The world owes much to the constructive, statesman-like gen- 
ius of Calvin and those who followed him, and we in America 
probably most of all. Geneva became a refuge for the persecuted 
Protestants from other lands, and through such influences the 
ideas of Calvin spread to the Huguenots in France, the Walloons 
of the Dutch and Belgian Netherlands, the Germans in the Pa- 
latinate, the Presbyterians of Scotland, the Puritans in England, 
and later to the American colonies. 

Calvinism in other lands. The great educational work done by 
the Calvinists in France, in the face of heavy persecution, de- 
serves to be ranked with that of the Lutherans in Germany in its 
importance. Had the Calvinists had the same opportunity for 
free development the Lutherans had, and especially their state 
support, there can be little doubt that their work would have 
greatly exceeded the Lutherans in importance and influence on 
the future history of mankind. 

True to the Calvinistic teaching of putting principles into 
practice, they organized an extensive system of schools, extending 
from elementary education for all, through secondary schools or 
colleges, up to eight Huguenot universities. As a people they 
were thrifty and capable of making great sacrifices to carry out 
their educational ideals. The education they provided was not 
only religious but civil; not only inteUectual but moral, social, 
and economic. Education was for all, rich and poor alike. Their 
synods made Hberal appropriations for the universities, while 
municipalities provided for colleges and elementary education. 
They emphasized, in the lower schools, the study of the vernacu- 
lar and arithmetic, and in the colleges Greek and the New Testa- 
ment. The long list of famous teachers found in their universi- 
ties reveals the character of their instruction. 

In the Palatinate (see map, Figure 33) some progress in found- 
ing churches and schools was made, especially about Strassburg, 
and the universities of Heidelberg and Marburg became the cen- 
ters of Huguenot teaching. In the Dutch Netherlands, and in 
that part of the Belgian Netherlands inhabited by the Walloons, 
Calvinist ideas as to education dominated. The universities of 
Leyden (f. 1575), Groningen (f. 1614), Amsterdam (f. 1630), and 



RESULTS AMONG CALVINISTS 



177 



Utrecht (f. 1636) were Calvinistic, and closely in touch with the 
Calvinists and Huguenots of German lands and France. Popu- 
lar education was looked after among these people as it was in 
Calvinistic France and Geneva. The Church Synod of The 
Hague (1586) ordered the establishment of schools in the cities, 
and in 1 6 18 the Great Synod held at Dort (R. 176) ordered that: 

Schools in which the young shall be properly instructed in piety and 
fundamentals of Christian doctrine shall be instituted not only in cities, but 
also in towns and country places where heretofore none have existed. The 
Christian magistracy shall be requested that honorable stipends be pro- 
vided for teachers, and that well-qualified persons may be employed and 
enabled to devote themselves to that function; and especially that the 
children of the poor may be gratuitously instructed by them and not be 
excluded from the benefits of schools. 

Further provisions were made as to the certificating of school- 
masters, and the pastors were made superintendents of the 
schools, to visit, exam- 
ine, encourage, advise, 
and report (R. 176). 
Provision for the free 
education of the poor 
became common, and 
elementary education 
was made accessible to 
all. The careful pro- 
vision for education 
made by the province 
of Utrecht (1590,1612) 
(R.I 78) was typical of 
Dutch activity. The 
province of Drenthe 
ordered(i 630) a school 
tax paid for all chil- 
dren over seven, 
whether attending 
school or not. The 
province of Overyssel 
levied (1666) a school 
tax for all children 

from eight to twelve years of age. The province of Groningep 
constituted the pastors the attendance officers to see that the 
children got to school. Amsterdam and many other Dutch cities 




Fig. 37. a Dutch Village School 

(After a painting by Adrian Ostade, dated 1662, 
now in the Louvre, at Paris) 



•178 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

demanded an examination of all teachers before being licensed to 
teach. By the middle of the seventeenth century a good system 
of schools seems to have been provided generally by the Dutch 
and the Belgian Walloons (R. 178). That the teaching of religion 
was the main function of the Dutch elementary schools, as of 
all other vernacular schools of the time, is seen from the official 
lists of the textbooks used (R. 178). 

John Knox, the leader of the Scottish Reformation (1560), who 
had spent some time at Geneva and who was deeply impressed by 
the Calvinistic rehgious-state found there, introduced the Calvin- 
istic religious and educational ideas into Scotland. The edu 
cational plan proposed by Knox would have called for a large ex- 
penditure of money, and this the thrifty Scotch were not ready 
for. Knox and his followers then proposed to endow the new 
schools from the old church and monastic foundations, but the 
Scottish nobles hoped to share in these, as had the EngUsh no- 
bihty under Henry VIII, and Knox's plan was not approved. 
This delayed the establishment of a real national system of edu- 
cation for Scotland until the nineteenth century. The new 
Church, however, took over the superintendence of education in 
Scotland, and when parish schools were finally estabhshed by 
decree of the Privy Council, in 161 6, and by the legislation of 
1633 and 1646 (R. 179), the Church was given an important 
share in their organization and management. These schools, 
while not always sufficient in number to meet the educational 
needs, were well taught, and have deeply influenced the national 
character. 

4. The Counter- Reformation of the Catholics 

The Jesuit Order. The Protestant Revolt made but little 
headway in Italy, Spain, Portugal, much of France, or southern 
Belgium (see map, p. 157). Italy was scarcely disturbed at all, 
while in France, where of all these countries the reform idea.s had 
made greatest progress, nine tenths of the people remained loyal 
to Rome. In a general way it may be stated that those parts of 
western Europe which had once formed an integral part of the old 
Roman Empire remained loyal to the Roman Church, while those 
which had been the homes of the Germanic tribes revolted. Now 
it naturally happened that the countries which remained loyal to 
the old Church experienced none of the feelings of the necessity 
for education as a means to personal salvation which the Luther- 



COUNTER-REFORMATION OF CATHOLICS 179 

ans and Calvinists felt. There, too, the church system of educa- 
tion which had developed during the long Middle Ages remained 
undisturbed and largely unchanged. The Church as an institu- 
tion, though, learned from the Protestants the value of education 
as a means to larger ends, and soon set about using it. 

After the Church Council of Trent (1545-63), where definite 
church reform measures were carried through (p. 161), the Catho- 
lics inaugurated what has since been called a counter-reforma- 
tion, in an effort to hold lands which were still loyal and to win 
back lands which had been lost. Besides reforming the practices 
and outward lives of the churchmen, and reforming some church 
practices and methods, the Church inaugurated a campaign of 
educational propaganda. In this last the chief reliance was upon 
a new and a very useful organization officially known as the '' So- 
ciety of Jesus," but more commonly called the "Jesuit Order." 
This order was organized along strictly military lines, all mem- 
bers being responsible to its General, and he in turn alone to the 
Pope. The quiet life of the cloister was abandoned for a life 
of open warfare under a military discipline. The Jesuit was to 
live in the world, and all peculiarities of dress or rule which might 
prove an obstacle to worldly success were suppressed. The pur- 
poses of the Order were to combat heresy, to advance the interests 
of the Church, and to strengthen the au- 
thority of the Papacy. Its motto was 
Omnia ad Majorem Dei Glorlam (that is, 
All for the greater glory of God), and the 
means to be employed by it to accomplish 
these ends were the pulpit, the confessional, 
the mission, and the school. Of these the 
school was given the place of first impor- 
tance. Realizing clearly that the real cause 
of the Reformation had been the ignor- 
ance, neglect, and vicious lives of so many 
monks and priests and the extortion and 
neglect practiced bv the Church, and that ^^^- ^^- Ig>-'atius de 
the chief dilticulty was m the higher places 

of authority, it became the prime principle of the Order to live 
upright and industrious lives themselves, and to try to reach and 
train those likely to be the future leaders in Church and State. 
With the education of the masses of the people the Order was not 
concerned. Our interest lies only with the educational work of 




i8o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

this Order, a work in which it was remarkably successful and 
through which it exercised a very large influence. 

Great success of the Order. The service of the Order to the 
Church in combating Protestant heresies was very marked. They 
did much, single-handed, to roll back the tide of Protestantism 
which had advanced over half of western Europe, and to hold 
other countries true to the ancient faith. 

The colleges were usually large and well-supported institutions, 
with dormitories, classrooms, dining-halls, and playgrounds. 
The usual number of scholars in each was about 300, though 
some had an attendance of 600 to 800, and a few as high as 
2000. At their period of maximum influence the colleges and 
universities of the Order probably enrolled a total of 200,000 
students. Their graduates were prominent in every scholarly 
and governmental activity of the time. As far as possible the 
pupils were a selected class to whom the Order offered free in- 
struction. The children of the nobiUty and gentry, and the 
brightest and most promising youths of the different lands were 
drawn into their schools. The children of many Protestants, 
also, were attracted by the high quality of the instruction offered. 
There they were given the best secondary-school education of the 
time, and received, at an impressionable age, the peculiar Jesuit 
stamp. Knowing very well why they were at work and what 
ends they should achieve, intolerant of opposition, intensely 
practical in all their work, and possessed of an indefatigable zeal 
in the accomplishment of their purpose, they gave Europe in gen- 
eral and northern continental Europe in particular a system of 
secondary schools and universities possessed of a high degree of 
effectiveness, which, combined with religious warfare and perse- 
cution, in time drove out or dwarfed all competing institutions in 
the countries they were able to control. 

Jesuit school methods. The characteristic method of the 
schools was oral, with a consequent closeness of contact of teacher 
and pupils. This closeness of contact and sympathy was further 
retained by the system whereby all punishment was given by the 
official Corrector of the institution. ^Their method, like that of 
the modern German Volkschule, was distinctly a teaching and 
not a questioning method. The teacher planned and gave the 
instruction; the pupils received it. The memory was drilled; 
but little training of the judgment or understanding was given. 
Thoroughness, memory drills, and the discipHnary value of stud- 



COUNTER-REFORMATION OF CATHOLICS i8i 

ies were foundation stones in the Jesuit's educational theory. 
Repetition, they said, was the mother of memory. Each day the 
work of the previous day was reviewed, and there were further 
reviews at the end of each week, month, and year. 

To retain the interest of the pupils amid such a load of memoriz- 
ing various school devices were resorted to, chief among which 
were prizes, ranks, emulations, rivals, and public disputations. 
The system of rivals, whereby each boy had an opponent seated 
opposite and constantly after him was one of the peculiar 
features of their schools. While the schools were said to have 
been made pleasant and attractive, the idea of the absolute au- 
thority of the Church which they represented pervaded them and 
repressed the development of that individuaHty which the court 
schools of the ItaHan Renaissance, the schools of the northern 
humanists, and the Calvinistic colleges had tried particularly to 
foster. This, however, is a criticism made from a modern point 
of view. That the school represented well the spirit of the times 
is indicated by their marked success as teaching institutions. 

Training of the Jesuit teacher. The newest and the most dis- 
tinguishing feature of the Jesuit educational scheme, as well as 
the most important, was the care with which they selected and 
the thoroughness with which they trained their teachers. To be- 
gin with, every Jesuit was a picked man, and of those who entered 
the Order only the best were selected for teaching. Each entered 
the Order for life, was vowed to celibacy, poverty, chastity, up- 
rightness of life, and absolute obedience to the commands of the 
Order. The six-year inferior course had to be completed, which 
required that the boy be sixteen to eighteen years of age before he 
could take the preliminary steps toward joining the Order. Then 
a two-year novitiate, away from the world, followed. This was a 
trial of his real character, his weak points were noted, and his will 
and determination tested. Many were dismissed before the end 
of the novitiate. If retained and accepted, he took the prelimi- 
nary vows and entered the philosophical course of study. On 
completing this he was from twenty-one to twenty-three years of 
age. He was now assigned to teach boys in the inferior classes of 
some college, and might remain there. If destined for higher 
work he taught in the inferior classes for two or three years, and 
then entered the theological course at some Jesuit university. 
This required four years for those headed for the ministry, and six 
for those who were being trained for professorships in the col- 



1 82 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

leges. On completing this course the final vows were taken, at an 
age of from twenty-nine to thirty-two. The training to-day is 
still longer. To become a teacher in the inferior classes required 
training until twenty-one at least, and for college (secondary) 
classes training until at least twenty-nine. The training was in 
scholarship, religion, theology, and an apprenticeship in teaching, 
and was superior to that required for a teaching license in any 
Protestant country of Europe, or in the Catholic Church itself 
outside of the Jesuit Order. 

With such carefully selected and well-educated teachers, them- 
selves models of upright life in an age when priests and monks 
had been careless, it is not surprising that they wielded an influ- 
ence wholly out of proportion to their numbers, and supplied 
Europe with its best secondary schools during the seventeenth 
and early eighteenth centuries. In the loyal Catholic countries 
they were virtually the first secondary schools outside of the mon- 
asteries and churches, and the real introduction of humanism into 
Spain, Portugal, and parts of France came with the establish- 
ment of the Jesuit humanistic colleges. For their schools they 
wrote new school books — the Protestant books, the most cele- 
brated of which were those of Erasmus, Melanchthon, Sturm, and 
Lily, were not possible of use — and for a time they put new life 
into the humanistic type of education. Before the eighteenth 
century, however, their secondary schools had become as formal 
as had those in Protestant lands (R. 146), and their universities 
far more narrow and intolerant. 

The Church and elementary education. As was stated on a 
preceding page, the countries which remained loyal to the Church 
experienced none of the Protestant feeling as to the necessity for 
universal education for individual salvation. In such lands the 
church system of education which had grown up during the 
Middle Ages remained undisturbed, and was expanded but slowly 
with the passage of time. The Church, never having made gen- 
eral provision for education, was not prepared for such work. 
Teachers were scarce, there was no theory of education except 
the religious theory, and few knew what to do or how to do it. 
Many churchmen, too, did not see the need for doing anything. 
Nevertheless the Church, spurred on by the new demands of a 
world fast becoming modern, and by the exhortations of the 
official representatives of the people, now began to make extra 
efforts, in the large cathedral cities, to remedy the deficiency oi 
more than a thousand years. 



COUNTER-REFORMATION OF CATHOLICS 183 

The general effect of the Reformation, though, was to stimu- 
late the Church to greater activity in elementary, as well as in 
secondary and higher education. In the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries we find a large number of decrees by church 
councils and exhortations by bishops urging the extension of the 
existing church system of education, so as to supply at least reli- 
gious training to all the children of the faithful. As a result a 
number of teaching orders were organized, the aim of which was to 
assist the Church in providing elementary and religious education 
for the children of the laboring and artisan classes in the cities. 

The Brothers of the Christian Schools. Xhe_largest and most 
influential of the teaching orders established for elementary edu- 
cation was the "Institute of the Brothers of the Christian 
Schools," founded by Father La Salle at Rouen, in 1684, and sanc- 
tioned by the King and Pope in 1724. As early as 1679 La Salle 
had begun a school at Rheims, and in 1684 he organized his disci- 
ples, prescribed a costume to be worn, and outlined the work of 
the brotherhood (R. 182). The object was to provide free ele- 
mentary and religious instruction in the vernacular for the chil- 
dren of the working classes, and to do for elementary education 
what the Jesuits had done for secondary education. La Salle's 
Conduct of Schools, first published in 1720, was the ratio studiorum 
of his order. His work marks the real beginning of free primary 
instruction in the vernacular in France. In addition to elemen- 
tary schools, a few of what we should call part-time continuation 
schools were organized for children engaged in commerce and 
industry. Realizing better than the Jesuits the need for well- 
trained rather than highly educated teachers for little children, 
and unable to supply members to meet the outside calls for 
schools. La Salle organized at Rheims, in 1685, what was prob- 
ably the second normal school for training teachers in the world. 
Another was organized later at Paris. In addition to a good edu- 
cation of the type of the time and thorough grounding in religion, 
the student teachers learned to teach in practice schools, under 
the direction of experienced teachers. 

The pupils in La Salle's schools were graded into classes, and 
the class method of instruction was introduced. The curriculum 
was unusually rich for a time when teaching methods and text- 
books were but poorly developed, the needs for literary education 
small, and when children could not as yet be spared from work 
1 longer than the age of nine or ten. Children learned first to read, 



i84 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

write, and spell French, and to do simple composition work in the 
vernacular. Those who mastered this easily were taught the 
Latin Psalter in addition. Much prominence was given to writ- 
ing, the instruction being applied to the writing of bills, notes, 
receipts, and the like. Much free questioning was allowed in 
arithmetic and the Catechism, -to insure perfect understanding of 
what was taught. Religious training was made the most promi- 
nent feature of the school, as was natural. A half- hour daily was 
given to the Catechism, mass was said daily, the crucifix was al- 
ways on the wall, and two or three pupils were always to be found 
kneeling, telling their beads. The discipline, in contradistinction 
to the customary practice of the time, was mild, though all pun- 
ishments were carefully prescribed by rule. The rule of silence 
in the school was rigidly enjoined, all speech was to be in a low 
tone of voioe, and a code of signals replaced speech for many 
things. 

Though the Order met with much opposition from both church 
and civil authorities, it made slow but steady headway. At the 
time of the death of La Salle, in 17 19, thirty-five years after its 
foundation, the Order had one general normal school, four normal 
schools for training teachers, three practice schools, thirty-three 
primary schools, and one continuation school. The Order re- 
mained largely French, and at the time of its suppression, in 1792, 
had schools in 121 communities in France and 6 elsewhere, about 
1000 brothers, and approximately 30,000 children in its schools. 
This was approximately i child in every 175 of school age of the 
population of France at that time. While relatively small in 
numbers, their schools represented the best attempt to provide 
elementary education in any Cathohc country before well into 
the nineteenth century. 

5. General results of the Reformation on education 

Destruction and creation of schools. Any such general over- 
turning of the established institutions and traditions of a thou- 
sand years as occurred at the time of the Protestant Revolts, with 
the accompanying bitter hatreds and religious strife, could not 
help but result in extensive destruction of estabhshed institutions. 
Monasteries, churches, and schools alike suffered, and it required 
time to replace them. Even though they had been neglectful of 
their functions, inadequate in number, and unsuited to the needs 
of a world fast becoming modern, they had nevertheless answered 



GENERAL RESULTS OF REFORMATION 185 

partially the need of the times. In all the countries where revolts 
took place these institutions suffered more or less, but in England 
probably most of all. The old schools which were not destroyed 
were transformed into Protestant schools, the grammar schools 
to train scholars and leaders, and the parish schools into Protest- 
ant elementary schools to teach reading and the Catechism, but 
the number of the latter, in all Protestant lands, was very far 
short of the number needed to carry out the Protestant religious 
theory. This, as we have seen, proposed to extend the elements 
of an education to large and entirely new classes of people who 
never before in the history of the world had had such advantages. 
Out of the Protestant religious conception that all should be edu- 
cated the popular elementary school of modern times has been 
evolved. The evolution, though, was slow, and long periods of 
time have been required for its accompHshment. 

In place of the schools destroyed, or the teachers driven out if r 
no destruction took place, the reformers made an earnest effort 
to create new schools and supply teachers. This, though, re- 
quired time, especially as there was as yet in the world no body 
of vernacular teachers, no institutions in which such could be 
trained, no theory as to education except the religious, no supply 
of educated men or women from which to draw, no theory of 
state support and control, and no source of taxation from which to 
derive a steady flow of funds. Throughout the long Middle Ages 
the Church had suppHed gratuitous or nearly gratuitous instruc- 
tion. This it could do, to the limited number whom it taught, 
from the proceeds of its age-old endowments and educational 
foundations. In the process of transformation from a Catholic 
to a Protestant State, and especially during the more than a cen- 
tury of turmoil and rehgious strife which followed the rupture of 
the old relations, many of the old endowments were lost or were 
diverted from their original purposes. As the Protestant reform- 
ers were supported generally by the ruhng princes, many of these 
tried to remedy the deficiency by ordering schools estabhshed. 
The landed nobiHty though, unused to providing education for 
their villein tenants and serfs, were averse to supplying the 
deficiency by any form of general taxation. Nor were the rising 
merchant classes in the cities any more anxious to pay taxes to 
provide for artisans and servants what had for ages been a gra- 
tuity or not furnished at all. 

No real demand for elementary schools. The creation of a 



i86 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

largely new type of schools, and in sufficient numbers to meet the 
needs of large classes of people who before had never shared in 
the advantages of education, in consequence proved to be a work 
of centuries. The century of warfare which followed the reforma- 




39 



Tendencies in Educational Development in Europe 
1500 to 1700 



tion movement more or less exhausted all Europe, while the 
Thirty Years' War which formed its culmination left the German 
States, where the largest early educational progress had been 
made, a ruin. In consequence there was for long Httle money for 
school support, and rehgious interest and church tithes had to be 
depended on almost entirely for the establishment and support 
of schools. Out of the parish sextons or clerks a supply of vernac- 
ular teachers had to be evolved, a system of school organization 
and supervision worked out and added to the duties of the min- 
ister, and the feeling of need for education awakened sufficiently 
to make people willing to support schools. In consequence what 
Luther and Calvin declared at the beginning of the sixteenth 
century to be a necessity for the State and the common right of 
all, it took until well int6 the nineteenth century actually to 
create and make a reaHty. 

The great demand of the time, too, was not so much for the 
education of the masses, however desirable or even necessary this 
might be from the standpoint of Protestant religious theory, but 
for the training of leaders for the new rehgious and social order 
which the Revival of Learning, the rise of modern nationahties, 



GENERAL RESULTS OF REFORMATION 187 

and the Reformation movements had brought into being. For 
this secondary schools for boys, largely Latin in type, were de- 
manded rather than elementary vernacular schools for both sexes. 
We accordingly find the great creations of the period were second- 
ary schools. 

Lines of future development established. Still more, certain 
lines of future development now became clearly established. The 
drawing given here will help to make this evident. It will be 
seen from this that not only was the secondary school still the 
dominant type, though elementary schools began for the first 
time to be considered as important also, but that the secondary 
schools were wholly independent of the elementary schools which 
now' began to be created. The elementary schools were in the 
vernacular and for the masses; the secondary schools were in the 
Latin tongue and for the training of the scholarly leaders. Be- 
tween these two schools, so different in type and in clientele, there 
wasHttle in common. This difference was further emphasized 
with time. The elementary schools later on added subjects of 
use to the common people, while the secondary schools added 
subjects of use for scholarly preparation or for university entrance. 
The secondary schools also frequently provided preparatory 
schools for their particular classes of children. As a result, all 
through Europe two school systems — an elementary-school sys- 
tem for the masses, and a secondary-school system for the classes 
— exist to-day side by side. We in America did not develop 
such a class school system, though we started that way. This 
was because the conception of education we finally developed 
was a product of a new democratic spirit, as will be explained 
later on. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Compare the attention to careful religious instruction in the secondary 
schools provided by the Lutherans, ■ Calvinists, and English. What 
analogous instruction do we provide in the American high schools? Is it 
as thorough or as well done? 

2. Compare the scope and ideals of the educational system provided by the 
Calvinists with the same for the Lutherans and Anglicans. 

3. Just what kind of a school system did Knox propose (1560) for Scotland? 

4. Show how the educational program of the Jesuits reveals Ignatius Loyola 
as a man of vision. 

5. Viewed from the purposes the Order had in mind, was it warranted in 
neglecting the education of the masses? 

6. Does the success of the Order show the importance to society of finding 
and educating the future leader? Can all men be trained for leadership? 

7. What does the statement that the Jesuits were "too practical to make 



i88 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

many changes," but had "a keen eye for what was best "in the work of 
others, indicate as to the nature of school administration and educa- 
tional progress? 

8. Indicate the advantages which the Jesuits had in their teachers and 
teaching-aim over us of to-day. How could we develop an aim as clearly 
defined and potent as theirs? Could we select teachers with such care? 
How? 

9. Compare the religious and educational propaganda of the Jesuits with 
the recent poHtical propaganda of the Germans. 

10. Compare present American standards for teacher-training for elemen- 
tary and secondary teaching with those required by the Jesuits: — (a) as 
to length of preparation; {b) as to nature and scope of preparation. 

11. How do you explain the introduction of sewing into the elementary ver- 
nacular Catholic schools for girls, so long before handiwork for boys 
was thought of? 

12. In schools so formally organized as those of La Salle, how do you explain 
the freedom allowed in questioning on arithmetic and the Catechism? 

13. Why should La Salle's work have been so opposed by both Church and 
civil authorities? 

1 { , Why must the education of leaders always precede the education of the 



masses 



15. Explain how European countries came naturally to have two largely 
independent school systems — a secondary school for leaders and an 
elementary school for the masses — whereas we have only one con- 
tinuous system. 

16. Explain why modern state systems of education developed first in the 
German States, and why England and the Catholic nations of Europe 
were so long in developing state school systems. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced : 

175. Woodward: Course of Study at the College of Geneva. 

176. Synod of Dort: Scheme of Christian Education adopted. 

177. Kilpatrick: Work of the Dutch in developing Schools. 

178. Kilpatrick: Character of the Dutch Schools of 1650. 

179. Statutes: The Scotch School Law of 1646. 

180. Pachtler: The Ratio Stiidiorum of the Jesuits. 

181. Gerard: The Dominant Religious Purpose in the Education of French 
Girls. 

182. La Salle: Rules for the "Brothers of the Christian Schools." 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Baird, C. W. History of the Rise of the Huguenots of France. 

Baird, C. W. Huguenot Emigration to America. 

Grant, Jas. History of the Burgh Schools of Scotland. 

Hughes, Thos. Loyola, and the Educational System of the Jesuits. 

Kilpatrick, Wm. H. The Dutch Schools of New Netherlands and Colonial 

New York. 
Laurie, S. S. History of Educational Opinion since the Renaissance. 
Ravelet, A. Blessed J. B. de la Salle. 
Schwickerath, R. Jesuit Education; its History and Principles in the Light 

of Modern Educational Problems. 
Woodward, W. H. Education during the Renaissance. 



CHAPTER XV 

• EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF THE PROTESTANT 

REVOLTS 

III. THE REFORMATION AND AMERICAN EDUCATION 

The Protestant settlement of America. Columbus had dis- 
covered the new world just twenty-five years before Luther 
nailed his theses to the church door at Wittenberg, and by the 
time the northern continent had been roughly explored and was 
ready for settlement, Europe was in the midst of a century of 
warfare in a vain attempt to extirpate the Protestant heresy. By 
the time that the futility of fire and sword as means for religious 
conversion had finally dawned upon Christian Europe and found 
expression in the Peace of WestphaHa (1648), which closed the 
terrible Thirty Years' War (p. 160), the first permanent settle- 
ments in a number of the American colonies had been made. 
These settlements, and the beginnings of education in America, 
are so closely tied up with the Protestant Revolts in Europe that 
a chapter on the beginnings of American education belongs here 
as still another phase of the educational results of the Protestant 
Revolts. 

Practically all the early settlers in America came from among 
the peoples and from those lands which had embraced some form 
of the Protestant faith, and many of them came to America to 
found new homes and estabhsh their churches in the wilderness, 
because here they could enjoy a rehgious freedom impossible in 
their old home-lands. This was especially true of the French 
Huguenots, many of whom, after the revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes (1685), fled to America and settled along the coast of 
the Carolinas; the Calvinistic Dutch and Walloons, who settled 
in and about New Amsterdam; the Scotch and Scotch-Irish 
Presbyterians, who settled in New Jersey, and later extended 
along the Allegheny Mountain ridges into all the southern colo- 
nies; the Enghsh Quakers about Philadelphia, who came under 
the leadership of William Penn, and a few Enghsh Baptists and 
Methodists in eastern Pennsylvania; the Swedish Lutherans, 
along the Delaware; the German Lutherans, Moravians, Mennon- 



I90 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ites, Dunkers, and Reformed -Church Germans, who settled in 
large numbers in the mountain valleys of Pennsylvania: and the 
Calvinistic dissenters from the Enghsh National Church, known 
as Puritans, who settled the New England colonies, and who, 




Fig. 40. Map showing the Religious Settlements in America 



more than any others, gave direction to the future development 
of education in the American States. Practically all of these 
early religious groups came to America in little congregations, 
bringing their ministers with them. Each set up, in the colony 
in which it settled, what were virtually little religious republics, 
that through them they might the better perpetuate the religious 



BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 191 

principles for which they had left the land of their birth. Educa- 
tion of the young for membership in the Church, and the perpet- 
uation of a learned ministry for the congregations, from the first 
elicited the serious attention of these pioneer settlers. 

Englishmen who were adherents of the English national faith 
(Anglicans) also settled in Virginia and the other southern colo- 
nies, and later in New York and New Jersey, while Maryland was 
founded as the only CathoHc colony, in what is now the United 
States, by a group of persecuted English Catholics who obtained 
a charter from Charles II, in 1632. These settlements are shown 
on the map on the preceding page. As a result of these settle- 
ments there was laid, during the early colonial period of American 
history, the foundation of those type attitudes toward education 
which subsequently so materially shaped the educational develop- 
ment of the different American States during the early part of our^ 
national history. 

The Puritans in New England. Of all those who came to 
America during this early period, the Calvinistic Puritans who 
settled the New England colonies contributed most that was val- 
uable to the future educational development of America, and 
because of this will be considered first. 

The original reformation in England, as was stated in chapters 
XII and XIII, had been much more nominal than real. The Eng- 
lish Bible and the English Pray er-B 00k had been issued to the 
churches (R. 170), and the King instead of the Pope had been 
declared by the Act of Supremacy (R. 153) to be the head of the 
Enghsh National Church. The same priests, though, had con- 
tinued in the churches under the new regime, and the church serv- 
ice had not greatly changed aside from its transformation from 
Latin into English. Neither the Church as an organization nor 
its members experienced any great religious reformation. Not all 
Enghshmen, though, took the change in allegiance so lightly 
(R. 183), and in consequence there came to be a gradually in- 
creasing number who desired a more fundamental reform of the 
English Church. By 1600 the demand for Church reform had 
become very insistent, and the question of Church purification 
(whence the name "Puritans") had become a burning question 
in England. 

The Enghsh Puritans, moreover, were of two classes. One was 
a moderate but influential "low-church " group within the " high " 
State Church, possessed of no desire to separate Church and 



192 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



State, but earnestly insistent on a simplification of the Church 
ceremonial, the ehmination of a number of the vestiges of the old 
Romish-Church ritual, and particularly the introduction of more 
preaching into the service. The other class constituted a much 
more radical group, and had become deeply imbued with Calvin- 
istic thinking. This group gradually came into open opposi- 
tion to any State Church, 







L,v.„„l)-Jf5 



r^^r 



Fig. 41. Homes or the Pilgrims, and 
THEIR Route to America 



stood for the local inde- 
pendence of the different 
churches or congrega- 
tions, and desired the 
complete elimination of 
all vestiges of the Romish 
faith from the church 
services. They became 
known as Independents, 
or Separatists, and formed 
the germs of the later 
Congregational groups of 
early New England. Both 
Elizabeth (i 558-1 603) and 
James I (1603-25) savagely persecuted this more radical group, 
and many of their congregations were forced to flee from Eng- 
land to obtain personal safety and to enjoy religious liberty (R. 
184) . One of these fugitive congregations, from Scrooby , in north- 
central England, after living for several years at Leyden, in 
Holland, finally set sail for America, landed on Plymouth Rock, 
in 1620, and began the settlement of that ''bleak and stormy 
coast." Other congregations soon followed, it having been 
estimated that twenty thousand EngHsh Puritans migrated to 
the New England wilderness before 1640. These represented a 
fairly well-to-do type of middle-class Englishmen, practically all 
of whom had had good educational advantages at home. 

Setthng along the coast in httle groups or congregations, they 
at once set up a combined civil and religious form of government, 
modeled in a way after Calvin's City-State at Geneva, and which 
became known as a New England town. In time the southern 
portion of the coast of New England was dotted with Httle self- 
governing settlements of those who had come to America to 
obtain for themselves that reHgious freedom which had been 
denied them at home. These settlements were loosely bound 



BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 193 

together in a colony federation, in which each town was repre- 
sented in a General Court, or legislature. 

Beginnings of schools in New England. Having come to 
America to secure religious freedom, it was but natural that the 
perpetuation of their particular faith by means of education 
should have been one of the first matters to engage their atten- 
tion, after the building of their homes and the setting up of the 
civil government (R. 185). Being deeply imbued with Calvin- 
istic ideas as to government and reHgion, they desired to found 
here a rehgious commonwealth, somewhat after the model of 
Geneva (p. 159), or Scotland (p. 178), or the Dutch provinces 
(p. 177), the corner-stones of which should be religion and edu- 
cation. 

At first, EngHsh precedents were followed. Home instruction, 
which was quite common in England among the Puritans, was 
naturally much employed to teach the children to read the Bible 
and to train them to participate in both the family and the con- 
gregational worship. After 1647, town elementary schools under 
a master, and later the English ^ 'dame schools" (chapter xviii), 
were established to provide this rudimentary instruction. The 
English apprentice system was also established (R. 201), and the 
masters of apprentices gave similar instruction to boys entrusted 
to their care. The town religious governments, under which all 
the little congregations organized themselves, much as the Httle 
religious parishes had been organized in old England, also began 
the voluntary establishment of town grammar schools, as a few 
towns in England had done (R. 143) before the Puritans migrated. 
The ''^Latin School" at Boston dates from 1635, and has had a 
continuous existence since that time. The grammar school at 
Charlestown dates from 1636, that at Ipswich from the same year, 
and the school at Salem from 1637. 

Founding of Harvard College. In addition to establishing Latin 
grammar schools, a college was founded, in 1636, by the General 
Court (legislature) of the Massachusetts Bay^CoTony. to perpetu- 
ate learning and insure an educated ministry (R. 185) to the 
churches after '' our present ministers shall he in the dust." This 
new college, located at Newtowne, was modeled after Emmanuel 
College at Cambridge, an English Puritan college in which many 
of the early New England colonists had studied, and in loving 
memory of which they rechristened Newtowne as Cambridge, 
In 1639 the college was christened Harvard College, after a grad- 



194 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

uate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, by the name of John 
Harvard, who died in Charlestown, a year after his arrival in the 
colony, and who left the college his library of two hundred and 
sixty volumes and half his property, about £850. 

The instruction in the new college was a combination of the arts 
and theological instruction given in a mediaeval university, 
though at Harvard the President, Master Dunster (R. 185), did 
all the teaching. For the first fifty years at Harvard this con- 
tinued to be true, the attendance during that time seldom exceed- 
ing twenty. The entrance requirements for the college (R. 186 a) 
call for the completion of a typical English Latin grammar-school 
education; the rules and precepts for the government of the col- 
lege (R. 186 b) reveal the deep religious motive; and the schedule 
of studies (R. 186 c) and the requirements for degrees (R. 186 d) 
both show that the instruction was true to the European type. 
In the charter for the college, granted by the colonial legislature in 
1650 (R. 187 a), we find exemptions and conditions which remind 
one strongly of the older European foundations. A century later 
Brown College, in Rhode Island, was granted even more exten- 
sive exemptions (R. 187 b). 

The first colonial legislation: the Law of 1642. We thus see 
manifested early in New England the deep Puritan-Calvinistic 
zeal for learning as a bulwark of Church and State. We also see 
the establishment in the wilderhess of New England of a typical 
English educational system — that is, private instruction in read- 
ing and religion by the parents in the home and by the masters of 
apprentices, and later by a town schoolmaster ; the Latin grammar 
school in the larger towns, to prepare boys for the college of the 
colony; and an English- type college to prepare them for the min- 
istry. As in England, too, all was clearly subordinate to the 
Church. Still further, as in England also, the system was volun- 
tary, the deep religious interest which had brought the congrega- 
tions to America being depended upon to insure for all the neces- 
sary education and rehgious training. 

It early became evident, though, that these voluntary efforts 
on the part of the people and the towns would not be sufficient to 
insure that general education which was required by the Puritan 
religious theory. Under the hard pioneer conditions, and the suf- 
fering which ensued, many parents and masters of apprentices 
evidently proved neglectful of their educational duties. Accord- 
ingly the Church appealed to its servant, the State, as represented 



BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 195 

in the colonial legislature (General Court) to assist it in compelling 
parents and masters to observe their religious obligations. The 
result was the famous Massachusetts Law of 1642 (R. 190), which 
directed ''the chosen men" (Selectmen; Councilmen) of each 
town to ascertain, from time to time, if the parents and masters 
were attending to their educational duties; if the children were 
being trained "in learning and labor and other employments . . . 
profitable to the Commonwealth"; and if children were being 
taught "to read and understand the principles of religion and the 
capital laws of the country," and empowered them to impose fines 
on "those who refuse to render such accounts to them when re- 
quired." 

The Law of 1642 is remarkable in that, for the first time in the 
EngHsh -speaking world, a legislative body representing the State 
ordered that all children should be taught to read. This law the 
Selectmen, or the courts if they failed to do so, were ordered to 
enforce, and the courts usually looked after their duties in the 
matter (R. 192). 

The Law oj 164^. The Law of 1642 did not, however, establish 
schools, or direct the employment of schoolmasters. The pro- 
vision of education, after the English fashion, was still left with 
the homes. After a trial of five years, the results of which were 
not satisfactory, the General Court enacted another law by means 
of which it has been asserted that "the Puritan government of 
Massachusetts rendered probably its greatest service to the 
future." 

After recounting in a preamble (R. 191) that it had in the past 
been "one cheife piect of y* ould deluder, Satan, to keepe men 
from the knowledge of y^ Scriptures, ... by keeping y"" in an un- 
knowne tongue," so now "by pswading from y^ use of tongues," 
and " obscuring y^ true sence & meaning of y^ originall " by "false 
glosses of saint-seeming deceivers," learning was in danger of 
being "buried in y^ grave of o"" fath^^ in y^ church and comon- 
wealth"; the Court ordered: 

1. That every town having fifty householders should at once appoint 
a teacher of reading and writing, and provide for his wages in such 
manner as the town might determine; and 

2. That every town having one hundred householders must provide 
a grammar school to fit youths for the university, under a pen- 
alty of £5 (afterwards increased to £20) for failure to do so. 

This law represents a distinct step in advance over the Law of 



196 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



1642, and for this there are no English precedents. It was not 
until the latter part of the nineteenth century that England took 
such a step. The precedents for the compulsory estabhshment of 
schools lie rather in the practices of the different German States 
(p. 167), the actions of the Dutch synods (R. 176) and provinces 
(p. 177), the Acts of the Scottish parliament of 1633 and 1646 
(p. 178; R. 179), and the general Calvinistic principle that educa- 
tion was an important function of a religious State. 

Principles established. The State here, acting again as the 
servant of the Church, enacted a law and fixed a tradition which 
prevailed and grew in strength and effectiveness after State and 
Church had parted company. Not only was a school system 
ordered established — elementary for all towns and children, and 
secondary for youths in the larger towns — but, for the first time 
among English-speaking people, there was an assertion of the right 
of the State to require communities to establish and maintain 
schools, under penalty if they refused to do so. It can be safely 
asserted, in the fight of later developments, that the two laws of 
1642 and 1647 represent the foundations upon which our American 
state pubfic -school systems have been built. 

Influence on other New England colonies. Connecticut Col- 
ony, in its Law of 1650 establishing a school system, combined the 
spirit of the Massachusetts Law of 1642, though stated in differ- 
ent words (R. 193), 
and the Law of 1647, 
stated word for word. 
New Haven Colony, 
in 1655, ordered that 
children and appren- 
tices should be taught 
to read, as had been 
done in Massachu- 
setts, in 1642, but on 
the union of New Ha- 
ven and Connecticut 
Colonies, in 1665, the 
Connecticut Code be- 
came the law for the 
united colonies. In 
1702 a cofiege was founded (Yale) and finally located at New 
Haven, to offer preparation for the ministry in the Connecticut 




Fig. 42. Where Yale College was founded 
The home of the Reverend Samuel Russell, at Bran- 
ford, Conn. The first meeting to organize the college 
was held there, in September, 1701 



BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 197 

colony, as had been done earlier in Massachusetts, and Latin 
grammar schools were founded in the Connecticut towns to pre- 
pare for the new college, as also had been done earlier in Massa- 
chusetts. The rules and regulations for the grammar school at 
New Haven (R. 189) reveal the purpose and describe the instruc- 
tion provided in one of the earliest and best of these. 

Plymouth Colony, in 1658 and again in 1663, proposed to the 
towns that they ''sett vp" a schoolmaster "to traine vp children 
to reading and writing" (R. 194 a). In 1672 the towns were 
asked to aid Harvard College by gifts (R. 194 b). In 1673-74 the 
income from the Cape Cod lisheries was set aside for the support 
of a (grammar) school (R. 194 c). Finally, in 1677, all towns 
having over fifty families and maintaining a grammar school were 
ordered aided from the fishery proceeds (R. 194 d). 

The Massachusetts laws also applied to Maine, New Hamp- 
shire, and Vermont, as these were then a part of Massachusetts 
Colony. When New Hampshire separated off, in 1680, the 
Massachusetts Laws of 1642 and 1647 were continued in force. 
In Maine and Vermont there were so few settlers, until near the 
beginning of our national life, that the influence of the Massa- 
chusetts legislation on these States was negligible until a later 
period. 

Only in Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, of all the 
New England colonies, did the Massachusetts legislation fail to 
exert a deep influence. Settled as these two had been by refugees 
from New England, and organized on a basis of hospitahty to all 
who suffered from religious oppression elsewhere, the religious 
stimulus to the founding of schools naturally was lacking. As 
the religious basis for education was as yet the only basis, the 
first development of schools in Rhode Island awaited the humani- 
tarian and economic influences which did not become operative 
until early in the nineteenth century. 

Outside of the New England colonies, the appeal to the State 
as the servant of the Church was seldom made during the early 
colonial period, the churches handling the educational problem 
in their own way. As a result the beginnings of State oversight 
and control were left to New England. In the central colonies a 
scries of parochial-school systems came to prevail, while in Episco- 
palian Virginia and the other colonies to the south the no-business- 
of-the State attitude assumed toward education by the mother 
country was copied. 



198 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The church schools of New York. New Netherlands as New 
York Colony was called before the English occupation, was settled 
by the Dutch West India Company, and some dozen villages about 
New York and up the Hudson had been founded by the time it 
passed to the control of the EngUsh, in 1664. In these the Dutch 
established typical home-land public parochial schools, under the 
control of the Reformed Dutch Church. The schoolmaster was 
usually the reader and precentor in the church as well (R. 195), 
and often acted, as in Holland, as sexton besides. Girls attended 
on equal terms with boys, but sat apart and recited in separate 
classes. The instruction consisted of reading and writing Dutch, 
sometimes a httle arithmetic, the Dutch Catechism, the reading 
of a few religious books, and certain prayers. The rules (1661) 
for a schoolmaster in New Amsterdam (R. 196), and the contract 
with a Dutch schoolmaster in Flatbush (R. 195), dating from 
1682, reveal the type of schools and school conditions provided. 
All except the children of the poor paid fees to the schoolmaster. 
He was licensed by the Dutch church authorities. As the Dutch 
had not come to America because of persecution, and were in no 
way out of sympathy with rehgious conditions in the home-land, 
the schools they developed here were typical of the Dutch Euro- 
pean parochial schools of the time (R. 178). A trivial (Latin) 
school was also established in New York, in 1652. 

The parochial schools of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was 
settled by Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, German 
Lutherans, Moravians, Mennonites, and members of the German 
Reformed Church, all of whom came to America to secure greater 
religious liberty and had been attracted to this colony by the free- 
dom of religious worship which Penn had provided for there. All 
these were Protestant sects, all believed in the necessity of learn- 
ing to read the Bible as a means to personal salvation, and all 
made efforts looking toward the estabhshment of schools as a part 
of their church organization. Unlike New England, though, no 
sect was in a majority ; church control for each denomination was 
considered as most satisfactory; and no appeal was made to the 
State to have it assist the churches in the enforcement of their 
rehgious purposes. The clergymen were usually the teachers in 
the parochial schools established, while private pay schools were 
opened in the villages and towns. These were taught in Enghsh, 
German, or the Moravian tongue (Czech), according to the orig- 
inal language of the different immigrants. The Quakers seem to 



BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 



199 



have taken particular interest in schools (R. 199), a Quaker school 
in Philadelphia (R. 198) hav- 
ing been estabhshed the year ^^^-^'^^M f>A'jX 
the city was founded. Girls 
were educated as well as boys, 
and the emphasis was placed 
on reading, writing, counting, 
and religion, rather than upon 
any higher form of training. 
The result was the devel- 
opment in this colony of a 
policy of depending on church 
and private effort, and the 
provision of education, aside 
from certain rudimentary and 
religious instruction, was left 
largely for those who could 
Charitable education was 




Fig. 43. An Old Quaker Meeting- 

HousE AND School at Lampeter, 

Pennsylvania 

(From an old drawing) 



afford to pay for the privilege, 
extended to but a few, for a short 
time, while, under the freedom allowed, many communities made 
but indifferent provisions or suffered their schools to lapse. 
Under the primitive conditions of the time the interest even 
in rehgious education often declined almost to the vanishing 
point. 

Virginia and the southern type. Almost all the conditions 
attending the settlement of Virginia were in contrast to those of 
the New England colonies. The early settlers were from the same 
class of English yeomen and country squires, but with the impor- 
tant difference that whereas the New England settlers were Dis- 
senters from the Church of England and had come to America to 
obtain freedom in rehgious worship, the settlers in Virginia were 
adherents of the National Church and had come to America for 
gain. The marked differences in climate and possible crops led 
to the large plantation type of settlement, instead of the compact 
httle New England town; the introduction of large numbers of 
''indentured white servants," and later negro slaves, led to the 
development of classes in society instead of to the New England 
type of democracy; and the lack of a strong religious motive for 
education naturally led to the adoption of the customary English 
practices instead of to the development of colonial schools. The 
tutor in the home, education in small private pay schools, or edu- 
cation in the mother country were the prevailing methods adopted 



200 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

among the well-to-do planters, while the poorer classes were left 
with only such advantages as apprenticeship training or charity 
schools might provide. Throughout the entire colonial period 
Virginia remained most like the mother country in spirit and 
practice, and stands among the colonies as the clearest example 
of the English attitude toward school support and control. As 
in the mother country, education was considered to be no business 
of the State. Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, 
and the CaroHnas followed the English attitude, much after the 
fashion of Virginia. During the entire colonial period the indif- 
ference of the mother country to general education was steadily 
reflected in Virginia and in the colonies which were essentially 
Anglican in religion, and followed the English example. 

Type plans represented by 1750. The seventeenth century 
thus witnessed the transplanting of European ideas as to govern- 
ment, religion, and education to the new American colonies, and 
by the eighteenth century we find three clearly marked types of 
educational practice or conception as to educational responsibility 
estabhshed on American soil. 

The first was the strong Calvinistic conception of a religious 
State, supporting a system of common vernacular schools, higher 
Latin schools, and a college, for both religious and civic ends. 
This type dominated New England, and is best represented by 
Massachusetts. From New England this attitude was carried 
westward by the migrations of New England people, and deeply 
influenced the educational development of all States to which the 
New Englander went in any large numbers. This was the edu- 
cational contribution of Calvinism to America. Out of it our 
state school systems of to-day, by the separation of Church and 
State, have been evolved. 

^ The second was the parochial-school conception of the Dutch, 
Moravians, Mennonites, German Lutherans, German Reformed 
Church, Quakers, Presbyterians, Baptists, and CathoHcs. This 
type is best represented by Protestant Pennsylvania and Catholic 
Maryland. It stood for church control of all educational efforts, 
resented state interference, was dominated only by church pur- 
poses, and in time came to be a serious obstacle in the way of 
rational state school organization and control. 

The third type, into which the second type tended to fuse, con- 
ceived of public education, aside from collegiate education, as 
intended chiefly for orphans and the children of the poor, and as 



BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA 201 

a charity which the State was under Httle or no obligation to 
assist in supporting. All children of the upper and middle classes 
in society attended private or church schools, or were taught by 
tutors in their homes, and for such instruction paid a proper tui- 
tion fee. Paupers and orphans, in Hmited numbers and for a 
limited time, might be provided with some form of useful educa- 
tion at the expense of either Church or State. JThis type is best 
represented by Anglican. Virginia, which typified well the laissez- 
faire policy which dominated England from the time of the 
Protestant Reformation until the latter half of the nineteenth 
century. 

These three types of attitude toward the provision of education 
became fixed American types, and each deeply influenced subse- 
quent American educational development, as we shall point out 
in a later chapter. 

Dominance of the religious motive. The seventeenth century 
was essentially a period of the transplanting, almost unchanged in 
form, of the characteristic European institutions, manners, reli- 
gious attitudes, and forms of government to American shores. 
Each sect or nationality on arriving set up in the new land the 
characteristic forms of church and school and social observances 
known in the old home-land. Dutch, Germans, English, Scotch, 
Calvinists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians — reproduced in 
the American colonies the main type of schools existing at the 
time of their migration in the mother land from which they came. 
They were also dominated by the same deep religious purpose. 

The dominance of this religious purpose in all instruction is 
well illustrated by the great beginning-school book of the time, 
The New England Primer. A digest of the contents of this, with 
a few pages reproduced, is given in R. 202. This book, from which 
all children learned to read, was used by Dissenters and Lutherans 
alike in the American colonies. This book Ford well characterizes 
in the following words: 

As one glances over what may truly be called ''The Little Bible of 
New England," and reads its stern lessons, the Puritan mood is caught 
with absolute faithfulness. Here was no easy road to knowledge and 
salvation; but with prose as bare of beauty as the whitewash of their 
churches, with poetry as rough and stern as their storm-torn coast, 
with pictures as crude and unfinished as their own glacial-smoothed 
boulders, between stiff oak covers which symbolized the contents, the 
children were tutored, until, from being unregenerate, and as Jonathan 
Edwards said, "young vipers, and infinitely more hateful than vipers" 



202 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to God, they attained that happy state when, as expressed by Judge 
Sewell's child, they were afraid that they '' should goe to hell," and were 
''stirred up dreadfully to seek God." God was made sterner and 
more cruel than any living judge, that all might be brought to realize 
how slight a chance even the least erring had of escaping eternal 
damnation. 

One learned to read chiefly that one might be able to read the 
Catechism and the Bible, and to know the will of the Heavenly 
Father. There was scarcely any other purpose in the mainte- 
nance of elementary schools. In the grammar schools and the 
colleges students were "instructed to consider well the main end 
of life and studies." These institutions existed mainly to insure 
a supply of learned ministers for service in Church and State. 
Such studies as history, geography, science, music, drawing, secu- 
lar literature, and organized play were unknown. Children were 
constantly surrounded, week days and Sundays, by the somber 
Calvinistic religious atmosphere in New England, and by the 
careful religious oversight of the pastors and elders in the colonies 
where the parochial-school system was the ruling plan for educa- 
tion. Schoolmasters were required to "catechise their scholars 
in the principles of the Christian religion," and it was made "a 
chief part of the schoolmaster's religious care to commend his 
scholars and his labors amongst them unto God by prayer morn- 
ing and evening, taking care that his scholars do reverently attend 
during the same." Religious matter constituted the only reading 
matter, outside the instruction in Latin in the grammar schools. 
The Catechism was taught, and the Bible was read and ex- 
pounded. Church attendance was required, and grammar-school 
pupils were obliged to report each week on the Sunday sermon. 
This insistence on the religious element was more prominent in 
Calvinistic New England than in the colonies to the south, but 
everywhere the religious purpose was dominant. The church 
parochial and charity schools were essentially schools for instilling 
the church practices and beliefs of the church maintaining them. 
This state of affairs continued until well toward the beginning of 
the nineteenth century. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Compare the conservative and radical groups in the English purification 
movement with the conservative and radical groups, as typified by Eras- 
mus and Luther, at the time of the Reformation. 

2. Show how, for each group, the schools established were merely home- 



BEGININNGS IN AMERICA 203 

land foreign-type religious schools, with nothing distinctively American 
about them. 

3. Show why such copying of home-land types, even to the Latin grammar 
school, was perfectly natural. 

4. The provision of the Law of 1642 requiring instruction in "the capital 
laws of the country" was new. How do you explain this addition to 
mother-land practices? 

5. Show why the Law of 1642 was Calvinistic rather than Anglican in its 
origin. 

6. Explain the meaning of the preamble to the Law of 1647. 

7. Show how the Law of 1647 must go back for precedents to German, 
Dutch, and Scotch sources. 

8. Show also that the Law of 1647, as well as modern state school laws, is 
neither paternalistic nor socialistic in essential purpose. 

9. Show_ that, though the mixture of religious sects in Pennsylvania made 
colonial legislation difficult, still it would have been possible to have 
enforced the Massachusetts Law of 1642, or the Pennsylvania laws of 
1683 or i6q3, in the colony. How do you explain the opposition and 
failure to do so? 

10. Show how the charity schools for the poor, and church missionary-society 
schools, were the natural outcome of the English attitude toward ele- 
mentary education. 

11. Which of the three type plans in the American colonies by 1750 most 
influenced educational development in your State? 

12. State the important contribution of Calvinism to our new-world life. 

13. Explain the indifference of the Anglican Church to general education 
during the whole of our colonial period. 

14. Explain what is meant by "The Puritan Church appealed to its servant, 
the State," etc. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

183. Nichols: The Puritan Attitude. 

184. Gov. Bradford: The Puritans leave England. 

185. First Fruits: The Founding of Harvard College. 

186. First Fruits: The First Rules for Harvard College. 

{a) Entrance Requirements. 

(b) Rules and Precepts. 

(c) Time and Order of Studies. 
{d) Requirements for Degrees. 

187. College Charters: Extracts from, showing Privileges. 

ia) Harvard College, 1650. 
{h) Brown College, 1764. 

188. Dillaway: Founding of the Free School at Roxburie. 

189. Baird: Rules and Regulations for Hopkins Grammar School. 

190. Statutes: The Massachusetts Law of 1642. 

191. Statutes: The Massachusetts Law of 1647. 

192. Court Records: Presentment of Topsfield for Violating the Law of 
1642. 

193. Statutes: The Connecticut Law of 1650.- 

194. Statutes: Plymouth Colony Legislation. 

195. Flatbush: Contract with a"^ Dutch Schoolmaster. 

196. New Amsterdam: Rules for a Schoolmaster in. 



204 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

197. Statutes: The Pennsylvania Law of 1683. 

198. Minutes of Council: The First School in Philadelphia. 

199. Murray: Early Quaker Injunctions regarding Schools. 

200. Statutes: Apprenticeship Laws in the Southern Colonies. 

(a) Virginia Statutes. 

(b) North CaroHna Court Records. 

201. Stiles: A New England Indenture of Apprenticeship. 

202. The New England Primer: Description and Digest. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Boone, R. G. Education in the United States. 
Brown, S. W. The Secularization of American Education. 
Cheyney, Edw. P. European Background of American Education, 
Dexter, E. G. A History of Education in the United States. 
*Eggleston, Edw. The Transit of Civilization. 
Fisk, C. R. "The English Parish and Education at the Beginning of 
American Civilization"; in School Review, vol. 23, pp. 433-49, (Sep- 
tember, 1915.) 
*Ford, P. L. The New England Primer. 
*Heatwole, C. J. A History of Education in Virginia. 
Jackson, G. L. The Development of School Support in Colonial Massa- 
chusetts. 
*Kilpatrick, Wm. H. The Dutch Schools of New Netherlands and Colonial 

New York. 
*Knight, E. W. Public School Education in North Carolina. 
*Martin, Geo. H. Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System. 
Seybolt, R. F. Apprenticeship and Apprentice Education in Colonial 
New York and New England. 
*Small, W. H. "The New England Grammar School"; in School Review, 
vol. 10, pp. 513-31. (September, 1902.) 
Small, W. H. Early New England Schools, 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 

New attitudes after the eleventh century. From the begin- 
ning of the twelfth century onward, as we have already noted, 
there had. been a slow but gradual change in the character of hu- 
man thinking, and a slow but certain disintegration of the Medi- 
aeval System, with its repressive attitude toward all independent 
thinking. Many different influences and movements had con- 
tributed to this change, all of which had tended to transform 
the mediaeval man and change his ways of thinking. New ob- 
jects of interest slowly came to the front, and new standards of 
Judgment gradually were applied. In consequence the mediaeval 
man, with his feehng of personal insignificance and lack of self- 
confidence, came to be replaced by a small but increasing number 
of men who were conscious of their powers, possessed a new self- 
confidence, and reahzed new possibilities of intellectual accom- 
plishment. 

The Revival of Learning, first in Italy and then elsewhere in 
western Europe, was the natural consequence of this awakening 
of the modern spirit, and in the careful work done by the human- 
istic scholars of the Itahan Renaissance in collecting, comparing, 
questioning, inferring, criticizing, and editing the texts, and in 
reconstructing the ancient life and history, we see the beginnings 
of the modern scientific spirit. It was this same critical, question- 
ing spirit which, when appHed later to geographical knowledge, 
led to the discovery of America and the circumnavigation of the 
globe; which, when appHed to matters of Christian faith, brought 
on the Protestant Revolts; which, when appHed to the problems 
of the universe, revealed the many wonderful fields of modern 
science; and which, when appHed to government, led to a ques- 
tioning of the divine right of kings and the rise of constitutional 
government. The awakening of scientific inquiry and the scien- 
tific spirit, and the attempt of a few thinkers to apply the new 
method to education, to which we now turn, may be regarded as 
only another phase of the awakening of the modern inquisitive 
spirit which found expression earHer in the rise of the universities, 
the recovery and reconstruction of the ancient learning, the 



2o6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

awakening of geographical discovery and exploration, and the 
questioning of the doctrines and practices of the Mediaeval 
Church. 

The Christian reaction against inquiry. The Christian attitude 
toward inquiry was from the first inhospitable, and in time be- 
came exceedingly intolerant. 

The history of Christianity throughout all the Dark Ages is a 
history of the distrust of inquiry and reason, and the emphasis of 
blind emotional faith. Mysticism, good and evil spirits, and the 
interpretation of natural phenomena as manifestations of the Di- 
vine will from the first received large emphasis. The worship of 
saints and rehcs, and the great development of the sensuous and 
symboHc, changed the earlier rehgion into a crude polytheism. 
During the long period of the Middle Ages the miraculous flour- 
ished. The most extreme superstition pervaded all ranks of soci- 
ety. Magic and prayers were employed to heal the sick, restore 
the crippled, foretell the future, and punish the wicked. Sacred 
pools, the royal touch, wonder-working images, and miracles 
through prayer stood in the way of the development of medicine 
(R. 204). Disease was attributed to satanic influence, and a regu- 
lar schedule of prayers for cures was in use. Sanitation was un- 
known. Plagues and pestilences were manifestations of Divine 
wrath, and hysteria and insanity were possession by the devil to 
be cast out by whipping and torture. One's future was deter- 
mined by the position of the heavenly bodies at the time of 
birth. Eclipses, meteors, and comets were fearful portents of 
Divine displeasure: 

Eight things there be a Comet brings, 

When it on high doth horrid rage; 
Wind, Famine, Plague, and Death to Kings, 

War, Earthquakes, Floods, and Direful Change. 

. The literature on magic was extensive. The most miraculous 
happenings were recorded and believed. Trial by ordeal, follow- 
ing careful religious formulae, was common before 1200, though 
prohibited shortly afterward by papal decrees (1215, 1222). The 
insistence of the Church on ''the willful, deviHsh character of 
heresy," and the extension of heresy to cover almost any form of 
honest doubt or independent inquiry, caused an intellectual stag- 
nation along lines of scientific investigation which was not re- 
lieved for more than a thousand years. The many notable ad- 
vances in physics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine made by 



THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 207 

Moslem scholars (chapter viii) were lost on Christian Europe, 
and had to be worked out again centuries later by the scholars of 
the western world. Out of the astronomy of the Arabs the Chris- 
tians got only astrology; out of their chemistry they got only al- 
chemy. Both in time stood seriously in the way of real scientific 
thinking and discovery. 

The effect of these religious revolts on the attitude of the 
Church toward intellectual liberty was natural and marked. The 
tolerance of inquiry recently extended was withdrawn, and an era 
of steadily increasing intolerance set in which was not broken for 
more than a century. In an effort to stop the further spread of 
the heresy, the Church Council of Trent (1545-63) adopted 
stringent regulations against heretical teachings (p. 303), while 
the sword and torch and imprisonment were resorted to to stamp 
out opposition and win back the revolting lands. A century of 
merciless warfare ensued, and the hatreds engendered by the long 
and bitter struggle over religious differences put both Catholic 
and Protestant Europe in no tolerant frame of mind toward in- 
quiry or new ideas. 

It was into this post-Reformation atmosphere of suspicion and 
distrust and hatred that the new critical, inquiring, questioning 
spirit of science, as applied to the forces of the universe, was born. 
A century earlier the first scientists might have obtained a respect- 
ful hearing, and might have been permitted to press their claims; 
after the Protestant Revolts had torn Christian Europe asunder 
this could hardly be. As a result the early scientists found them- 
selves in no enviable position. Their theories were bitterly as- 
sailed as savoring of heresy; their methods and purposes were 
alike suspected; and any challenge of an old long-accepted idea 
was likely to bring a punishment that was swift and sure. From 
the middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury was not a time when new ideas were at a premium anywhere 
in western Europe. It was essentially a period of reaction, and 
periods of reaction are not favorable to intellectual progress. It 
was into this century of reaction that modern scientific inquiry 
and reasoning, itself another form of expression of the intellectual 
attitudes awakened by the work of the humanistic scholars of the 
Italian Renaissance, made its first claim for a hearing. 

In 1543 a Bohemian church canon and physician by the name 
of Nicholas Copernicus published his De Revolutionihus Orbium 
Celestium, in which he set forth the explanation of the universe 



2o8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

which we now know. At first Copexnicus' work attracted but 
Httle attention. An Italian Dominican by the name of Giordano 
Bruno (i 548-1 600), deeply impressed by the new theory, set forth 
in Latin and Italian the far-reaching and majestic implications 
of such a theory of creation, and was burned at the stake at 
Rome for his pains. A Dane, Tycho Brahe, after twenty-one 
years of careful observation of the heavens, showed Aristotle to 
be wrong in many particulars. His observations of the comet 
of 1577 led him to conclude that the theory of crystalhne spheres 
was impossible, and that the common view of the time as to their 
nature was absurd. In 1609 a German by the name of Johann 
Kepler (15 71-1630), using the records of observations which 
Tycho Brahe had accumulated and applying them to the planet 
Mars, proved the truth of the Copernican theory and framed 
his famous three laws for planetary motion. 

Finally an ItaHan, Gahleo Galilei, a professor at the University 
of Pisa, developing a telescope that would magnify co eight diam- 
eters, discovered Jupiter's sateUites and Saturn's rings. The 
story of his discovery of the satellites of Jupiter is another interest- 
ing illustration of the careful scientific reasoning of these early 
workers (R. 206). Galileo also made a number of discoveries in 
physics, through the use of new scientific methods, which com- 
pletely upset the teaching of the Aristotelians, and made the 
most notable advances in mechanics since the days of Archimedes. 

Finally the EngUsh scholar Newton (i 642-1 728), in his Prin- 
cipia (1687), settled permanently all discussions as to the Coper- 
nican theory by his wonderful mathematical studies. He dem- 
onstrated mathematically the motions of the planets and comets, 
proved Kepler's laws to be true, explained gravitation and the 
tides, made clear the nature of light, and reduced dynamics to a 
science. So far-reaching in its importance was the scientific work 
of Newton that Pope's couplet seems exceedingly applicable: 

Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night; 
God said, "Let Newton be," and there was light. 

The sixteenth century thus marks the rise of modern scientific 
inquiry, and the beginnings of the study of modern science. The 
number of scholars engaged in the study was still painfully small, 
and the religious prejudice against which they worked was strong 
and powerful, but in the work of these few men we have not only 
the beginnings of the study of modern astronomy, physics, chem- 
istry, metallurgy, medicine, anatomy, physiology, and natural 



THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 209 

history, but also the beginnings of a group of men, destined in 
time to increase greatly in number, who could see straight, and 
who sought facts regardless of where they might lead and what 
preconceived ideas they might upset. How deeply the future of 
civilization is indebted to such men, men who braved social ostra- 
cism and often the wrath of the Church as well, for the, to them, 
precious privilege of seeing things as they are, we are not likely to 
over-estimate. In time their work was destined to reach the 
schools, and to materially modify the character of all education. 

Human reason in the investigation of nature. To the English 
statesman and philosopher, Francis Bacon, more than to any one 
else, are we indebted for the proper formulation and statement of 
this new scientific method. Though not a scientist himself, he ij^ 
has often been termed "the father of modern science." By 
showing how to learn from nature herself he turned the Re- 
naissance energy into a new direction, and made a revolutionary 
break with the disputations and deductive logic of the Aristo- 
telian scholastics which had for so long dominated university in- 
struction. 

In formulating the new method he first pointed out the defects 
of the learning of his time, which he classified under the head of 
''distempers," three in number, and as follows: 

1. Fantastic learning: Alchemy, magic, miracles, old-wives' tales, 
credulities, superstitions, pseudo-science, and impostures of all sorts 
inherited from an ignorant past, and now conserved as treasures of 
knowledge. 

2. Contentious learning: The endless disputations of the Scholastics 
about questions which had lost their significance, deductive in char- 
acter, not based on any observation, not aimed primarily to arrive at 
truth, ''fruitful of controversy, and barren of effect." 

3. Delicate learning: The new learning of the humanistic Renais- 
sance, verbal and not real, stylish and polished but not socially impor- 
tant, and leading to nothing except a mastery of itself. 

As an escape from these three types of distempers, which well 
characterized the three great stages in human progress from the 
sixth to the fifteenth centuries, Bacon offered the inductive 
method, by means of which men would be able to distinguish true 
from false, learn to see straight, create useful knowledge, and fill 
in the great gaps in the learning of the time by actually working 
out new knowledge from the unknown. The collecting, organiz- 
ing, comparing, questioning, and inferring spirit of the humanistic 
revival he now turned in a new direction by organizing and formu- 



2IO A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

lating for the work a new Organum to take the place of the old 
Organon of Aristotle. In Book I he sets forth some of the difficul- 
ties (R. 208) with which those who try new experiments or work 
out new methods of study have to contend from partisans of old 
ideas. 

The Novum Organum showed the means of escape from the er- 
rors of two thousand years by means of a new method of thinking 
and work. His true service to science lay in the completeness of 
his analysis of the inductive process, and his declaration that 
those who wish to arrive at useful discoveries must travel by that 
road. As Macaulay well says, in his essay on Bacon: 

He was not the maker of that road ; he was not the discoverer of that 
road ; he was not the person who first surveyed and mapped that road. 
But he was the person who first called the public attention to an inex- 
haustible mine of wealth which had been utterly neglected, and which 
was accessible by that road alone. 

To stimulate men to the discovery of useful truth, to turn the 
energies of mankind — even slowly — from assumption and dis- 
putation to patient experimentation, and to give an impress to 
human thinking which it has retained for centuries, is, as Macau- 
lay well says, "the rare prerogative of a few imperial spirits." 
Macaulay 's excellent summary of the importance of Bacon's 
work (R. 209) is well worth reading at this point. 

The new method in the hands of subsequent workers. By the 
middle of the seventeenth century many important advances had 
been made in many different lines of scientific work. In the two 
centuries between 1450 and 1650, the foundations of modern 
mathematics and mechanics had been laid. At the beginning of 
the period Arabic notation and the early books of Euclid were 
about all that were taught; at its end the western world had 
worked out decimals, symbolic algebra, much of plane and spher- 
ical trigonometry, mechanics, logarithms (1614) and conic sec- 
tions (1637), and was soon to add the calculus (1667-87). Mer- 
cator had pubUshed the map of the world (1569) which has ever 
since borne his name, and the Gregorian calendar had been intro- 
duced (1572). The barometer, thermometer, air-pump, pendu- 
lum clock, and the telescope had come into use in the period. Al- 
chemy had passed over into modern chemistry ; and the astrologer 
was finding less and less to do as the astronomer took his place. 
The English Hippocrates, Thomas Sydenham (1624-89), during 
this period laid the foundations of modern medical study, and the 



THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY 211 



SCIENCE 


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Fig. 44. The Loss and Recovery of the Sciences 

Each short horizontal line indicates the Hfe-span of a very distinguished scholar in 
the science. Mohammedan scientists have not been included. The relative neg- 
lect or ignorance of a science has been indicated by the depth of the shading. The 
great loss to civilization caused by the barbarian inroads and the hostile attitude of 
the early Church is evident. 



microscope was applied to the study of organic fomis. Modern 
ideas as to light and optics and gases, and the theory of gravita- 
tion, were about to be set forth. All these advances had been 
made during the century following the epoch-making labors of 
Copernicus, the first modern scientific man to make an impression 
on the thinking of mankind. 

Accompanying this new scientific work there arose, among a 
few men in each of the western European countries, an interest in 
scientific studies such as the world had not witnessed si^ce the 
days of the Alexandrian Greek. This interest found expression in 
the organization of scientific societies, wholly outside the univer- 
sities of the time, for the reporting of methods and results, and 
for the mingling together in sympathetic companionship of these 
seekers after new truth. 

After 1650 the advance of science was rapid. The spirit of 
modern inquiry, which in the sixteenth century had animated but 
a few minds, by the middle of the seventeenth had extended to all 
the principal countries of Europe. The striking results obtained 
during the seventeenth century revealed the vast field waiting to 
be explored, and filled many independent modern-type scholars 
with an enthusiasm for research in the new domain of science. 
By the close of the eighteenth century the main outHnes of most 
of the modern sciences had been established. 



212 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Show that the rise of scientific inquiry was but another manifestation 
of the same inquiring spirit which had led to the recovery of the ancient 
Hteratures and history. 

2. Show that it would be possible largely to determine the character of a 
civilization, if one knew only the prevailing ideas and conceptions as to 
scientific and religious matters. 

3. Of which type was the reasoning of Gahleo as to Jupiter's satellites? 

4. Show that the three "distempers" described by Bacon characterize the 
three great stages in human progress from the sixth to the fifteenth 
centuries. 

5. How do you explain the long rejection of the new sciences by the univer- 
sities? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

203. Macaulay: Attitude of the Ancients toward Scientific Inquiry. 

204. Franck: The Credulity of Mediaeval People. 

205. Copernicus: How he arrived at the theory he set forth. 

206. Brewster: Galileo's Discovery of the Satellites of Jupiter. 

207. Inquisition: The Abjuration of Galileo. 

208. Bacon: On Scientific Progress. 

209. Macaulay: The Importance of Bacon's Work. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Ball, W. R. R. History of Mathematics at Cambridge. 
*Libby, Walter. An Introduction to the History of Science. 
Ornstein, Martha. Role of the Scientific Societies in the Seventeenth 
Century. 
*Routledge, Robert. A Popular History of Science. 
*Sedgwick, W. T. and Tyler, H. W. A Short History of Science. 
*Whife, A. D. History of the Warfare of Science with Theology, 2 vols. 
Wordsworth, Christopher. Scholce Academicce; Studies at the English 
Universities in the Eighteenth Century. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE NEW SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 

The rise of realism in education. As will be remembered from 
our study of the educational results of the Revival of Learning 
(chapter xi), the new schools estabhshed, in the reaction against 
mediaevalism, to teach pure Latin and Greek, in time became 
formal and lifeless (p. 150), and their aim came to be almost en- 
tirely that of imparting a mastery of the Ciceronian style, both in 
writing and in speech. This idea, first clearly inaugurated by 
Sturm at Strassburg (R. 137), had now become fixed, and in its 
extreme is illustrated by the teachings of the Jesuit Campion at 
Prague (R. 146). As a reaction against this extreme position of 
the humanistic scholars there arose, during the sixteenth century, 
and as a further expression of the new critical spirit awakened by 
the Revival of Learning, a demand for a type of education which 
would make truth rather than beauty, and the realities of the life 
of the time rather than the beauties of a life of Roman days, the 
aim and purpose of education. This new spirit became known as 
Realism, was contemporaneous with the rise of scientific inquiry, 
and was an expression of a similar dissatisfaction with the learning 
of the time. As applied to education this new spirit may be said 
to have manifested itself in three different stages, as follows: 

1. Humanistic reaUsm. j i^^M^ '■ 

2. Social realism. V ^ - 

3. Sense realism. 

We will explain each of these, briefly, in order. 

I. HUMANISTIC REALISM 

A new aim in instruction. Humanistic realism represents the 
beginning of the reaction against form and style and in favor of 
ideas and content. The humanistic reahsts were in agreement 
with the classical humanists that the old classical literatures and 
the Bible contained all that was important in the education of 
youth. The ancient Kteratures, they held, presented ''not only 
the widest product of human intelligence, but practically all that 
was worthy of man's attention." The two groups differed, how- 
ever, in that the classical humanists conceived the aim of educa- 



214 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tion to be the mastery of the vocabulary and style of Cicero, and 
the production of a new race of Roman youths for a revived Latin 
scholarly world, while the new humanistic reahsts wanted to use 
the old Hteratures as a means to a new end — that of teaching 
knowledge that would be useful in the world in which they lived. 
Exponents of humanistic realism. The Dutch international 
scholar Erasmus (1466?-! 536) (p. 147), the Frenchman Rabelais 
( 1 483-1 553), and the Enghsh poet Milton (1608-74) stand as the 
clearest representatives of this new humanistic reaKsm. 

Erasmus had clearly distinguished between the education of 
words and the education of things, had pointed out the ease with , 
which real truth is learned and retained, and had urged the study 
of the content rather than the form of the ancient authors. 

The French non-conforming monk, cure, physician, and uni- 
versity scholar, Francois Rabelais, in his satirical Life of Gargan- 
tua (1535) and The Heroic Deeds of Pantagruel (1533) had set 
forth, even more clearly, the idea of obtaining from a study of the 
ancient authors (R. 210) knowledge that would be useful. He ridi- 
culed the old scholastic learning, set forth 
the idea of using the old classics for realistic 
as well as humanistic ends, and also advo-t 
cated physical, moral, social, and religious 
education in the spirit of the best writers 
and teachers of the Itahan Renaissance. 
His book was extensively read and had 
some influence in shaping thinking, though 
Rabelais's importance in the history of edu- 
cation lies rather in his influence on later 
educational thinkers than on the life of his 
' time. 

Rabelais (148^-1 =;c;s) Perhaps the clearest example of human- 
istic realism is found in the writings of the 
English poet and humanitarian, John Milton. His Tractate on 
Education (1644) was extensively read, and was influential in 
shaping educational practice in the non-conformist secondary 
academies which arose a little later in England. Still later his 
ideas indirectly somewhat influenced American development. 

Milton first gives us an excellent statement of the new religious- 
civic aim of post-Reformation education (R. 211), and then 
points out the defects of the existing education, whereby boys 
*' spend seven or eight years merely in scraping together so much 




SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 



215 



miserable Latine and Greek, as might be learnt otherwise easily 
and delightfully in one year." He then presents his plan for "sl 
compleat and generous Education" for ''noble and gentle 
youths," and tells "how all this may be done between twelve and 
one and twenty, less time than is now bestowed in pure trifling 
at Grammar and Sophistry." The course of study he outlines 
(R. 212) is enormous. Aside, though, from its impossibiHty of ac- 
compHshment except by a superior few, Milton's plan is thoroughly 
representative of the new humanistic- 
realistic point of view — that is, that edu- 
^ cation should impart useful information, 
though the information as Milton con- 
ceived it was to be drawn almost entirely 
from the books of the ancients. 

Educational results of humanistic real- 
ism. The importance of humanistic real- 



ism in the history of education Hes largely 
in that it was the first of a series of reac- 
tions that led_ later to sense-realism — 
that is, to the study of science and the 
appHcation of scientific method in the 
schools. 

In England it possesses still larger im- 
portance. Milton had called his insti- 
tution an "Academy." After the restoration of the Stuarts 
(Charles H, 1660), some two thousand non-conforming clergy- 
men were "dispossessed" by the Act of Conformity (1662; 
R, 166), and soon after this the children of Non-Conformists 
were excluded from the grammar schools and universities. 
Many of these clergymen now turned to teaching as a means of 
earning a livelihood and serving their people, and the ideas of the 
non-conformist Milton were influential in turning the schools 
thus established even further to ward th e study of useful subjects. 
Many of the new schools offered instruction in the modern 
langu agesjo^ic^h e toric^et h i cs . geography, astronomy, algebra, 
geometry, trigonometry, surXneying, navigation, history, oratory, 
economics, and natural and moral philosophy, as well as the old 
classical subjects. All teaching, too, was done in Enghsh, and the 
study of English language and literature was emphasized. This 
made these non-conformist academies in many respects superior 
to the older Latin grammar schools. After the enactment of the 




Fig. 46. John Milton 

(1608-74) 



2i6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



Toleration Act, in 1689, these schools were allowed to incorporate 
and were gradually absorbed into the existing Latin grammar- 
school system of England, but unfortunately without producing 
much change in the character of these older institutions. 

The idea of offering instruction in these new studies was in 
time carried to America, where better results were obtained. At 
first a few of the subjects, such as the rnathematical studies, sur- 
veying, navigation, and EngUsh, were introduced into the existing 
Latin grammar or other schools of secondary grade. Especially 
was this true in the colonies south of New England. After 1751, 
and especially after about 1780, distinct Academies arose in the 
United States (chapter xviii), whose purpose was to offer instruc- 
tion in all these new subjects of study. From these our modern 
high schools have been derived. 

II. SOCIAL REALISM 

Montaigne and Locke. Social realism represents a still further 
reaction away from the humanistic schools. It was the natural 
reaction of practical men of the new world 
against a type of education that tended 
to perpetuate the pedantry of an earlier 
age, by devoting its energies to the pro- 
duction of the scholar and professional 
man to the neglect of the man of affairs. 
The social realists were small in number, 
but powerful because of their important 
social connections and wealth, and they 
were very determined to have an educa- 
tion suited to their needs, even if they had 
to create it themselves (R. 213). The 
French nobleman, scholar, author, and 
civic officer. Lord Montaigne (1533-92), 
and the EngHsh philosopher, John Locke 
(163 2- 1 704), were the clearest exponents of this new point of 
view, though it found expression in the writings of many others. 
Each declared for a practical, useful type of education for the 
young boy who was to live the life of a gentleman in the world 
of affairs. 

Neither had any sympathy with the colleges and grammar 
schools of the time (R. 214), and both reje^tCttthe school for the 
private tutor. This tutor must be selected with great care, and 




Fig. 47. Michel de 
Montaigne (1533-92) 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 217 




Fig. 48. John Locke 

( 1632-1704) 



first of all must be a well-bred gentleman — a man, as Montaigne 
says, ''who has rather a well-made than a well-filled head" (R. 
215). Locke cautions that ''one tit to educate and form the 
Mind of a young Gentleman is not every where to be found," and 
of the common type of teacher he asks, 
"When such an one has empty 'd out 
into his Pupil all the Latin and Logick he 
has brought from the University, will 
that Furniture make him a fine Gentle- 
man?" (R. 216). 

Both condemn the school training of 
their time, and both urge that the tutor 
train the judgment and the understanding 
rather than the memory. To impart good 
manners rather than mere information, 
and to train for life in the world rather 
than for the life of a scholar, seem to both 
of fundamental importance in the educa- 
tion of a boy. "The great world," says 
Montaigne, "is the mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves. 
In short, I would have this to be th6 book my young gentleman 
should study with the most attention." "Latin and Learning," 
says Locke, "make all the Noise; and the main Stress is laid upon 
Proficiency in Things a great Part whereof belong not to a Gentle- 
man's Calling; which is to have the Knowledge of a Man of 
Business, a Carriage suitable to his Rank, and to be eminent and 
useful to his Country, according to his Station" (R. 216). Both 
emphasized the importance of travel abroad as an important 
factor in the education of a gentleman. 

Their place in the history of education. Both Montaigne and 
Locke were concerned alone with the education of the sons of 
gentlemen, individuals now coming rapidly into prominence to 
dispute place in the world of affairs with the higher nobility on 
the one hand and the clergy on the other. With the education of 
any other class Montaigne never concerned himself. Locke 
was extensively read by the gentry of England, as expressive 
of the best current practice of their class, and his ideas as to 
education were also of some influence in shaping the instruc- 
tion of the non-conformist teachers in the academies there. His 
place in the history of education is also of some importance, as 
we shall point out later, for the discipHnary theory of education 



21 8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

which he set forth. Still more, Locke later exerted a deep 
influence on the writings of Rousseau (chapter xxi), and hence 
helped materially to shape modern educational theory. 

The new schools for the sons of the gentry. Both Montaigne 
and Locke, in their emphasis on the importance of a practical edu- 
cation for the social and political demands of a gentleman con- 
cerned with the affairs of the modern world, represent a still fur- 
ther reaction against the humanistic schools of the time than did 
the humanistic realists whom we have just considered. Still 
more, both are expressive of the attitude of the nobihty and gen- 
try of the time, who had almost deserted the schools as pedantic 
institutions of little value. France was then the great country of 
Europe, and French language, French political ideas, French 
manners, and French tutors found their way into all neighboring 
lands. A new social and political ideal was erected — that of the 
polished man of the world, who could speak French, had traveled, 
knew history and politics, law and geography, heraldry and gene- 
alogy, some mathematics and physics with their applications, 
could use the sword and ride, was adept in games and dancing, 
and was skilled in the practical affairs of life. 

III. SENSE REALISM 

The new educational aims of this group. This represented a 
still further and more important step in advance than either of 
the preceding. In a very direct way sense realism in education 
was an outgrowth of the organizing work of Francis Bacon. Its 
aim was: 

(i) To apply the same inductive method formulated by Bacon for 
the sciences to the work of education, with a view to organizing 
a general method which would greatly simplify the instructional 
process, reduce educational work to an organized system, and in 
consequence effect a great saving of time; and 

(2) To replace the instruction in Latin by instruction in the vernacu- 
lar, and to substitute new scientific and social studies, deemed 
of greater value for a modern world, for the excessive devotion 
to linguistic studies. 

The sixteenth century had been essentially a period of criticism in 
education, and the leading thinkers on education, as in other lines 
of intellectual activity, were not in the schools. In the seven- 
teenth century we come to a new group of men who attempted to 
think out and work out in practice the ideas advanced by the 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 219 

critics of the preceding period. In the seventeenth century we 
have, in consequence, the first serious attempt to formulate an 
educational method since the days of the Athenian Greeks and 
the treatise of Quintilian. 

The possibihty of formulating an educational method that 
would simphfy the educational process and save time in in- 
str[IctiQn7]appealed to a, number of thinkers, in different lands. 
This grou'p of thinkers, due to their new methods of attack and 
thought, the German historian of education, Karl von Raumer, 
has called Innovators. The chief pedagogical ideas of the Innova- 
tors were: 

1. That education should proceed from the simple to the complex, 
and the concrete to the abstract. 

2. That things should come before rules. 

3. That students should be taught to analyze, rather than to con- 
struct. 

4. That each student should be taught to investigate for himself, 
rather than to accept or depend upon authority. 

5. That only that should be memorized which is clearly understood 
and of real value. 

6. That restraint and coercion should be replaced by interest in the 
studies taught. 

7. That the vernacular should be used as the medium for all instruc- 
tion. 

8. That the study of real things should precede the study of words 
about things. 

9. That the order and course of Nature be discovered, and that a 
method of teaching based on this then be worked out. 

10. That physical education should be introduced for the sake of 
health, and not merely to teach gentlemanly sports, 

11. That all should be provided with the opportunity for an education 
in the elements of knowledge. This to be in the vernacular. 

12. That Latin and Greek be taught only to those likely to complete 
an education, and then through the medium of the mother tongue. 

13. That a uniform and scientific method of instruction could be 

worked out, which would reduce education to a science and serve 
as a guide for teachers everywhere. 

The EngHshman, Francis Bacon, whom we have previously con- 
sidered; the German, Wolfgang Ratichius (or Ratke); and the 
Moravian bishop and teacher, Johann Amos Comenius, stand as 
perhaps the clearest examples of this organizing tendency in edu- 
cation. Ratke and Comenius will be considered here as types. 

Wolfgang Ratke. Bacon had believed that the new scientific 
knowledge should be incorporated into the instruction of the 



220 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

schools, and had suggested, in his Advancement of Learning (1603- 
05), a broader course of study for them, and better facihties for 
scientific investigation and teaching. While Bacon was not a 
teacher and did not write specifically on school instruction, his 
writings nevertheless deeply influenced many of those who fol- 
lowed his thinking. 

The first writer to apply Bacon's ideas to education and to 
attempt to evolve a new method and a new course of instruction 
was a German, by the name of Wolfgang Ratke (1571-1635). 
While studying in England he had read Bacon's Advancement oj 
Learning, and from Bacon's suggestions Ratke tried to work out 
a new method of instruction. 

In 161 7 Ratke pubHshed, in Leipzig, his Metjiodus Nova, which 
was the pioneer work on school method, and is Ratke's chief 
claim to mention here. In this he laid down the fundamental 
rules for teaching, as he had thought them out. They were as 
follows: 

1. The order of Nature was to be sought and followed. 

2. One thing at a time, and that mastered thoroughly. 
/3. Much repetition to insure retention. 

/ 4. Use of the mother tongue for all instruction, and the languages 
to be taught through it. 

5. Everything to be taught without constraint. The teacher to 
teach, and the scholars to keep order and discipline. 

6. No learning by heart. Much questioning and understanding. 

7. Uniformity in books and methods a necessity. 

8. Knowledge of things to precede words about things. 

9. Individual experience and contact and inquiry to replace author- 
ity. 

We see here the essentials of the Baconian ideas, as well as the 
foreshadowings of many other subsequent reforms in teaching 
method. 

Johann Amos Comenius. We now reach not only the greatest 
representative of sense realism, both in theory and practice, be- 
fore the latter part of the eighteenth century, but also one of the 
commanding figures in the history of education. Comenius was 
born at Nivnitz, in Moravia, in 1592. As a member, pastor, and 
later bishop of the Moravian church, and as a follower of John 
Huss, he suffered greatly in the Catholic-Protestant warfare 
which raged over his native land during the period of the Thirty 
Years' War. His home twice plundered, his books and manu- 
scripts twice burned, his wife and children murdered, and himself 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 221 

at times a fugitive and later an exile, Comenius gave his long life 
to the advancement of the interests of mankind through religion 
and learning. Driven from his home and country, he became a 
scholar of the world. 

While a student at the University of Nassau, at the age of 
twenty, he read and was deeply impressed by the "Address" of 
Ratke. Bacon's Novum Organum, which appeared when he was 
twenty-eight, made a still deeper impression upon him. He seems 
to have been familiar also with the writings of the educational re- 
formers of his time in all European lands. He traveled exten- 
sively, and maintained a large correspondence with the scholars of 
his time. 

Comenius and educational method. While teaching at Lissa, 
in Poland, Comenius had formulated for himself the principles 
underlying "schooTThstruction, as he saw it, in a lengthy book 
whiclr he called The Great Didactic. The title page (R. 218) and 
the table of contents (R. 219) will give an idea as to its scope. In 
this work Comenius formulated and explained his two funda- 
mental ideas, namely, that all instruction must be carefully 
graded and arranged to follow the order of nature, and that, in 
imparting knowledge to children, the teacher must make constant 
appeal through sense-perception to the understanding of the 
child. We have here the fundamental ideas of Bacon appHed to 
the school, and Comenius stands as the clearest exponent of sense 
reahsm in teaching up to his time, and for more than a century 
afterward. 

Deeply rehgious by nature and training, Comenius held the 
Holy Scriptures to contain the beginning and end of all learning; 
to know God aright he held to be the highest aim ; and with true 
Protestant fervor he contended that the education of every hu- 
man being was a necessity if mankind was to enter into its re- 
ligious inheritance, and piety, virtue, and learning were to be 
brought to their fruition. Unlike those who were enthusiasts 
for religious education only, Comenius saw further, and held an 
ideal of service to the State and Church here below for which 
proper training was needed. Still more, he beheved in the educa- ', 
tion of human beings simply because they were human beings, |\ 
and not merely for salvation, as Luther had held. Comenius \ 
was the first to formulate a practicable school method, working ' 
along the new lines marked out by Bacon. 

Comenius* ideas as to the organization of schools. In his Di- 



222 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

dactica Magna Comenius divided the school life of a child into 
four great divisions. The first concerned the period from infancy 
to the age of six, which he called The Mother School. For this 
period he wrote The School of Infancy (1628), a book intended 
primarily for parents, and one of such deep insight and funda- 
mental importance that parents and teachers may still read it 
with interest and profit. In it he anticipated many of the ideas 
of the kindergarten of to-day. The next division was The Vernac- 
ular School, which covered the period from the ages of six to 
twelve. For this period six classes were to be provided, and the 
emphasis was to be on the mother tongue. This school was to be 
for all, of both sexes, and in it the basis of an education for life 
was to be given. It was to teach its pupils to read and write the 
mother tongue; enough arithmetic for the ordinary business of 
life, and the commonly used measures; to sing, and to know cer- 
tain songs by rote; to know about the real things of life; the Cate- 
chism and the Bible; a general knowledge of history, and espe- 
cially the creation, fall, and redemption of man; the elements of 
geography and astronomy; and a knowledge of the trades and 
occupations of life; all of which, says Comenius, can be taught 
better through the mother tongue than through the medium of 
the Latin and Greek. In scope this school corresponds with the 
vernacular school of modern Europe. 

The next school was The Latin School, covering the years from 
twelve to eighteen, and in this German, Latin, Greek, and He- 
brew were to be taught, by improved methods, and with physics 
and mathematics added. This school he divided into six classes, 
named from the principal study in each, as follows: (i) Grammar, 
(2) Physics, (3) Mathematics, (4) Ethics, (5) Dialectics, (6) Rhet- 
oric. He also later outlined a plan for a six-class Gymnasium for 
Saros-Patak (R. 220), culminating in a seventh year for prepara- 
tion for the ministry, which was an improvement on the Latin 
School and very modern in character. Had such a school be- 
come common, secondary education in Europe might have been a 
century in advance of where the nineteenth century found it. 
The Latin school was to be attended only by those of abiUty 
who were likely to enter the service of Church or State, or who 
intended to pass on to the University. This last was to cover 
the period from eighteen to twenty-four. Unlike all educational 
practice of his time and later, Comenius here provides for an 
educational ladder of the present-day American type, wholly 




EjiJumfM. S : 



fffhucrfc 



^e. here an CkiIc ' rvh^ tojcruc kt/ Qoc) . 

^^^ UomuitjfJ^u^, d in^ rvirrin, uemg Kn^^runc 
hall the Tvorid. makM tuT th^ fp^rrui fuJ an/rtc • 



Plate 3. John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) 

The Moravian Bishop at the age of fifty. (After an engraving by Glover, 
printed as a frontispiece to Hartlib's A Reformation of Schooles. London, 1642.) 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 223 

unlike the European two-class school system which (p. 187) later 
evolved. 

Comenius* work in reforming language teaching. At the time 
Comenius lived and wrote, the languages constituted almost the 
only subject of study, and Latin grammar was the great intro- 
ductory subject. Comenius early became convinced, as a result 
of his teaching and studies in educational method, that the ancient 
classical authors were not only too difficult for boys beginning the 
study of Latin, but that they also did not contain the type of real 
knowledge he felt should be taught in the schools. He accord- 
ingly set to work to construct a series of introductory Latin read- 
ers which would form a graded introduction to the study of Latin, 
and which would also introduce the pupil to the type of world 
knowledge and scientific information he felt should be taught. 

Beginning his textbook work with the Janua, and after- 
wards in the Vestihulum and Orbis_Pictns as well, Comenius not 
only simplified the teaching of Latin by producing the best text- 
books for instruction in the subject the world had ever known, 
but he also shifted the whole emphasis in instruction from words 
to things, and made the teaching of scientific knowledge and use- 
ful world information the keynote of his work. The hundred 
dift'erent chapters of the Janua, and the hundred and fifty-one 
chapters of the Orhis Pictus, were devoted to imparting informa- 
tion as to all kinds of useful subjects. (See R. 221 for four 
pages of illustrations from the Orhis Pictus.) 

The success of these textbooks was immediate and very great. 
Within a short time after the pubhcation of the Janua it had been 
translated into Flemish, Bohemian, English, French, German, 
Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, PoHsh-, Spanish, and Swedish, 
as well as into Arabic, MongoKan, Russian, and Turkish. The 
Orbis Pictus was an even greater success. It went through many 
editions, in many languages; stood without a competitor in 
Europe for a hundred and fifteen years; and was used as an intro- 
ductory textbook for nearly two hundred years. An Ameri- 
can edition was brought out in New York City, as late as 1810. 
Thousands of parents, who knew nothing of Comenius and cared 
nothing for his educational ideas, bought the book for their chil- 
dren because they found that they liked the pictures and learned 
the language easily from it. 

Place and influence of Comenius. Comenius stands in the 
history of education in a position of commanding importance. 



K 



224 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

He introduces the whole modern conception of the educational 
process, and outHnes many of the modern movements for the im- 
provement of educational procedure. What Petrarch was to the 
revival of learning, what Wycliffe was to religious thought, what 
Copernicus was to modern science, and what Bacon and Des- 
cartes were to modern philosophy, Comenins was to educational 
practice and thinking (R. 222). The germ of almost all eight- 
eenth- and nineteenth-century educational theory is to be found 
in his work, and he, more than any one before him and for at least 
two centuries after him, made an earnest effort to introduce the 
new science studies into the school. Far more liberal than his 
Lutheran or Calvinistic or Anglican or Catholic contemporaries, 
he planned his school for the education of youth in religion and 
learning and to fit them for the needs of a modern world. Unlike 
the textbooks of his time, and for more than a century afterward, 
his were free from either sectarian bigotry or the intense and 
gloomy atmosphere of the age. 

Yet Comenius lived at an unfortunate period in the history of 
human progress. The early part of the seventeenth century was 
not a time when an enthusiastic and aggressive and Hberal- 
minded reformer could expect much of a hearing anywhere in 
western Europe. The shock of the contest into which western 
Christendom had been plunged by the challenge of Luther had 
been felt in every corner of Europe, and the culmination of a cen- 
tury of warfare was then raging, with all the bitterness and brutal- 
ity that a religious motive develops. Christian Europe was too 
filled with an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust and hatred to 
be in any mood to consider reforms for the improvement of the 
education of mankind. As a result the far-reaching changes in 
method formulated by Comenius made but sHght impression on 
his contemporaries; his attempt to introduce scientific studies 
awakened suspicion, rather than interest; and the new method 
which he formulated in his Great Didactic was ignored and the 
book itself was forgotten for centuries. His great influence 
on educational progress was through the reform his textbooks 
worked in the teaching of Latin, and the slow infiltration into the 
schools of the scientific ideas they contained. As a result, many 
of the fundamentally sound reforms for which he stood had to be 
worked out anew in the nineteenth century. 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 225 

IV. REALISM AND THE SCHOOLS 

The vernacular schools. The ideas for which the realists just 
described had stood were adopted in the people's schools but 
slowly, and came only after long waiting. The final incorpora- 
tion of science instruction into elementary education did not come 
until the nineteenth century, and then was an outgrowth of the X 
reform work of Pestalozzi on the one hand, and the new social, 
political, economic, and industrial forces of a modern world on the 
other. 

The Peace of Westphalia (1648), which closed a century of bit- 
ter and vindictive religious warfare, was followed by another cen- 
tury of hatred, suspicion, and narrow religious intolerance and 
reaction. All parties now adopted an extremely conservative at- 
titude in matters of religion and education, and the protection of 
orthodoxy became the chief purpose of the school. Reading, re- 
ligion, a little counting and writing, and, in Teutonic lands, music, 
came to constitute the curriculum of such elementary vernacular 
schools as had come to exist, and the religious Primer and the 
Bible became the great school textbooks. The people were poor, 
much of Europe was impoverished and depopulated as a result of 
long-continued religious strife, the common people still occupied a 
very low social position, there were as yet no qualified teachers, 
and no need for general education aside from religion. Still more, 
during more than a thousand years the Church had estabHshed 
the tradition of providing free education, and when the governing 
authorities of the States which turned to Protestantism had taken 
from the Church both the opportunity to continue the schools 
and the wealth with which to maintain them, they were seldom 
willing to tax themselves to set up institutions to continue the 
work formerly done gratis by the Church. In consequence, re- 
gardless of Protestant educational theory as to the need for gen- 
jeral education, but little progress in providing vernacular schools 
was made during the whole of the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries. 

The transition now practically complete. From the time Pe- 
trarch made his first "find" at Liege (1333), in the form of two 
previously unknown orations of Cicero (p. 132), to the publica- 
tion of the Principia (p. 208) of Newton (1687), is a period of ap- 
proximately three and a half centuries. During these three and a 
half centuries a complete transformation of world-life had been 



226 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

effected, and the mediaeval man, with his eyes on the past, had 
given place to the modern man with his eyes on the future. Dur- 
ing these three and a half centuries revolutionary forces had been 
at work in the world of ideas, and the transition from mediaeval 
to modern attitudes had been accomplished. From 1333 to 1433 
was the century of "Hterary finds," and during this period the 
monastic treasures were brought to light and edited and the 
classical Hterature of Rome restored. Greek also was restored to 
the western world, and a reformed Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 
were given the place of first importance in the new humanistic 
school. The invention of printing took place in 1423; 1456 wit- 
nessed the appearance of the first printed book, and the perfection 
of the new means for the multiplication of books and the dissemi- 
nation of ideas. Before 1500 the great era of geographical dis- 
covery had been inaugurated; a sea- route to India was found in 
1487 ; and a new continent in 1492. In 1515-18 Magellan's ships 
rounded the world. 

In 1517 Luther issued the challenge, the shock of which was 
felt in every corner of Christian Europe, and within a half-century 
much of northern and western Europe had been lost to the origi- 
nal Roman Church. Soon independence in thinking had been 
extended to the problem of the organization of the universe, and 
in 1543 Copernicus issued the book that clearly marks the begin- 
ning of modern scientific thinking and inquiry. Bacon had done 
his organizing work by 1620, and Newton's Principia (1687) fi- 
nally established modern scientific thought and work. Comenius 
died in 1671, his great organizing work done, and his textbooks, 
with their many new educational ideas, in use all over Europe. 
The mediaiival attitude still continued in religion and govern- 
ment, but the world as a whole had left mediaeval attitudes be- 
hind it, and was facing the future of modern world organization 
and life. To the educational organization of this modern world 
we now turn, though before doing so we shall try to present a. 
cross-section, as it were, of the development in educational theory 
and practice which had been attained by about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Explain why the scholars of the time were so intent on producing a new 
race of Roman youths for a revived Latin scholarly world. 

2. Show that a reaction against humanism was certain to arise, and why. 

3. How do you explain the very small influence exerted on the Latin gram- 



SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND THE SCHOOLS 22^] 

mar schools of England by the non-conformist Academies, after they had 
been absorbed into the existing English non-state system of higher 
schools? 

4. Compare Milton and Montaigne. 

5. What would be the most probable effect on education of the erection of 
the polished-man-of-the-world ideal? 

6. Enumerate the forces favoring and opposing the change of the language 
of instruction from Latin to the vernacular. 

7. How many of the thirteen principles of the Innovators do we still hold 
to be valid? 

!»8. Just what was new in the nine fundamental rules laid down by Ratke, 

in his Methodus Nova ? 
ig. What is your estimate of the vernacular schools as outlined by Comenius? 

Of the plans for a gymnasium at Saros-Patak? 
-10. Compare Comenius' Latin school with the College of Calvin (p. 175). 

11. State the new ideas in instruction embodied in the textbooks of 
Comenius. 

12. Show that Comenius dominates modern educational ideas, even though 
his work was largely lost, in the same way that Petrarch or Wycliffe or 
Copernicus do modern work in their fields. 

13. Explain the very slow development of vernacular schools after the 
Protestant Revolts. 

14. Why would the introduction of real studies into them be especially slow? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following illustrative selections 
are reproduced: 

210. Rabelais: On the Nature of Education. 

211. Milton: The Aim and Purpose of Education. 

212. Milton: His Program for Study. 

213. Adamson: Discontent of the Nobility with the Schools. 

214. Montaigne: Ridicule of the Humanistic Pedants. 

215. Montaigne: His Conception of Education. 

216. Locke: Extracts from his Thoughts on Education. 

217. Locke: Plan for Working Schools for Poor Children. 

218. Comenius: Title-Page of the Great Didactic. 

219. Comenius: Contents of the Great DidQctic. 

220. Comenius: Plan for the Gymnasium at Saros-Patak. 

221. Comenius: Sample pages from the Orhis Pictus. 

(a) A page from a Latin-German edition of 1740. 
{h) Two pages from a Latin-EngHsh edition of 1727. 
(c) A page from the New York edition of 1810. 

222. Butler: Place of Comenius in the History of Education. 

223. Gesner: Need for Realschulen for the New Classes to be Educa*:ed. 

224. Handbill: How the Scientific Studies began at Cambridge. 

225. Green: Cambridge Scheme of Study of 1707. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Educatioji, 1600-1700. 

Barnard, Henry. German teachers and Educators. 

Browning, Oscar, Editor. Milton's Tractate on Education. 
*Butler, N. M. "The Place of Comenius in the History of Education": 
in Proc. N. E. A., 1892, pp. 723-28. 



228 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

*Comenius, J. A. Orbls Pictus (Bardeen; Syracuse). 
Hanus, Paul H. "The Permanent Influence of Comenius"; in Educa- 
. tional Review, vol. 3, pp. 226-36 (March, 1892). 
Laurie, S. S. History of Educational Opinion since the Renaissance. 
*Laurie, S. S. John Amos Comenius. 

Quick, R. H., Editor. Locke'' s Thoughts on Education. 
*Quick, R. H. Essays on Educational Reformers. 

*Vostrovsky, Clara. "A European School of the Time of Comenius 
(Prague, 1609)"; in Education, vol. 17, pp. 356-60 (February, 1897.) 
Wordsworth, Christopher. Scholce Academicce; Studies at the English 
Universities in the Eighteenth Century. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

THEORY AND PRACTICE BY THE MIDDLE OF THE 
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 

We have now reached, in our history of the transition age which 
began with the Revival of Learning — the great events of which 
were the recovery of the ancient learning, the rediscovery of the 
historic past, the reawakening of scholarship, and the rise of re- 
ligious and scientific inquiry — the end of the transition period, 
and we are now ready to pass to a study of the development and 
progress of education in modern times. Before doing so, however, 
we desire to gather up and state the progress in both educational 
theory and practice which had been attained by the end of this 
transition period, and to present, as it were, a cross-section of 
education at about the middle of the eighteenth century. To do 
this, then, before passing to a consideration of educational develop- 
ment in modern times, will be the purpose of this chapter. We 
shall first review the progress made in evolving a theory as to the 
educational purpose, and then present a cross-section view of the 
schools of the time under consideration. 

I. PRE-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDUCATIONAL THEORIES 

The rise of the vernacular religious school. For the first time 
in history, if we except the schools of the early Christian period, 
the Protestant Revolts created a demand for some form of an ele- 
mentary religious school for all. The Protestant theory as to per- 
sonal versus collective salvation involved as a consequence the 
idea of the education of all in the essentials of the Christian faith 
and doctrine. The aim was the same as before — personal salva- 
tion — but the method was now changed from that of the Church 
as intermediary to personal knowledge and faith and effort. To 
be saved, one must know something of the Word of God, and this 
necessitated instruction. To this end, in theory at least, schools 
had to be established to educate the young for membership in the 
new type of Church relationship. Reading the vernacular, a little 
counting and writing, in Teutonic countries a little music, and 
careful instruction in a religious Primer (R. 202), the Catechism, 
and the Bible, now came to constitute the subject-matter of a new 



230 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

vernacular school for the children of Protestants, and to a certain 
extent in time for the children of Catholics as well. As we 
pointed out earlier (p. 187), between this new type of school for 
religious ends and the older Latin grammar school for scholarly 
purposes there was almost no relationship, and the two developed 
wholly independently of one another. In the Latin grammar 
schools one studied to become a scholar and a leader in the politi- 
cal or ecclesiastical world; in the vernacular religious school one 
learned to read that he might be able to read the Catechism and 
the Bible, and to know the will of the Heavenly Father. There 
was scarcely any other purpose to the maintenance of the ele- 
mentary vernacular schools. This condition continued until well 
into the eighteenth century. 

Early unsuccessful educational reformers. Back in the seven- 
teenth century, as we have pointed out in the preceding chapter, 
a very earnest effort was made by Ratke and Comenius to intro- 
duce a larger conception of the educational process into the ele- 
mentary vernacular school, to eliminate the gloomy religious ma- 
terial from the textbooks, to substitute a human-welfare purpose 
for the exclusively Hfe-beyond view, and to transform the school 
into an institution for imparting both learning and religion. Co- 
menius in particular hoped to make of the new elementary reli- 
gious school a potent instrument for human progress by introduc- 
ing new subject-matter, and by formulating laws and developing 
methods for its work which would be in harmony with the new 
scientific procedure so well stated by Francis Bacon. 

John Locke, and the disciplinary theory of education. An- 
other commanding figure in seventeenth-century pedagogical 
thought was the Enghsh scholar, philosopher, teacher, physician, 
and poHtical writer, John Locke (163 2-1 704). In the preceding 
chapter we pointed out the place of Locke as a writer on the edu- 
cation of the sons of the EngHsh gentry, and illustrated by an ex- 
tract from his Thoughts (R..216) the importance he placed on such 
a practical type of education as would prepare a gentleman's son 
for the social and pohtical demands of a world fast becoming 
modern. Locke's place in the history of education, though, is of 
much more importance than was there (p. 217) indicated. Locke 
was essentially the founder of modern psychology, based on the 
apphcation of the methods of modern scientific investigation to a 
study of the mind, and he is also of importance in the history 
of educational thought as having set forth, at some length and 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 231 

with much detail, the discipHnary conception of the educational 
process. 

In his Thoughts Locke first sets forth at length the necessity for 
disciplining the body by means of diet, exercise, and the harden- 
ing process. "A sound mind in a sound body " he conceives to be 
*' a short but full description of a happy state in this world," and a 
fundamental basis for morality and learning. The formation of 
good habits and manners through proper training, and the proper 
adjustment of punishments and rewards next occupies his atten- 
tion, and he then explains his theory as to making all punishments 
the natural consequences of acts. Similarly the mind, as the 
body, must be disciplined to virtue by training the child to deny, 
subordinate desires, and apply reason to acts. The formation of 
good habits and the disciplining of the desires Locke regards as 
the foundations of virtue. 

Similarly, in intellectual education, good thinking and the em- 
ployment of reason is the aim, and these, too, must be attained 
through the proper discipline of the mind. Good intellectual edu- 
cation does not consist merely in studying and learning, he con- 
tends, as was the common practice in the grammar schools of his 
time, but must be achieved by a proper driUing of the powers of 
the mind through the use of selected studies. The purpose of 
education, he holds, is above all else to make man a reasoning 
creature. In the education given in the grammar schools of his 
time he found much that seemed to him wasteful of time and 
thoroughly bad in principle, and he used much space to point 
out defects and describe better methods of teaching and manage- 
ment, giving in some detail reasons therefor. His ideas as to 
needed reforms in the teaching of Latin (R. 227) are illustrative. 

Locke on elementary education. For the beginnings of educa- 
tion, and for elementary education in general, Locke sticks close 
to the prevaiHng rehgious conception of his time. As for the edu- 
cation of the common people, he writes: 

The knowledge of the Bible and the business of his own calling is 
enough for the ordinary man; a Gentleman ought to go further. 

Locke does, however, give some very sensible suggestions as to the 
reading of the Bible (R. 228), the imparting of religious ideas to 
children, and the desirabihty of transforming instruction so as to 
make it pleasant and agreeable, with plenty of natural playful 
activity. 



232 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Locke's great influence on educational thought did not come, 
though, for nearly three quarters of a century afterward, and it 
came then through the popularization of his best ideas by Rous- 
seau. 

Restating and expanding the leading ideas of Locke in his 
Emile (chapter xxi), and putting them into far more attractive 
literary form, Rousseau scattered Locke's ideas as to educational 
reform over Europe. In particular Rousseau popularized Locke's 
ideas as to the replacement of authority by reason and investiga- 
tion, his emphasis on physical activity and health, his contention 
that the education of children should be along lines that were 
natural and normal for children, and above all Locke's plea for 
education through the senses rather than the memory. In so 
popularizing Locke's ideas, and at a time when all the poHtical 
tendencies of the period were in the direction of the rejection of 
authority and the emphasis of the individual, those educational 
reformers who were inspired by the writings of Rousseau created 
and applied, largely on the foundations laid down by John Locke, 
a new theory as to educational aims and procedure which domi- 
nated all early nineteenth-century instruction. This we shall trace 
further in a subsequent chapter (chapter xxi). 

II. MID-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDUCATIONAL CONDITIONS 

It was at this point that the educational problem stood, in so 
far as a theory as to educational aims and the educational process 
was concerned, when Rousseau took it up (1762). Before passing 
to a consideration of his work, though, and the work of those in- 
spired by him and by the French revolutionary writers and states- 
men, let us close this third part of our history by a brief survey of 
the development so far attained, the purpose, character, aims, 
and nature of instruction in the schools, and their means of sup- 
port and control at about the middle of the century in which 
Rousseau wrote, and before the philosophical and political revolu- 
tions of the latter half of the eighteenth century had begun to in- 
fluence educational aims and procedure and control. 

The purpose. The purpose of maintaining the elementary 
vernacular school, in all European lands, remained at the middle 
of the eighteenth century much as it was a century before, though 
in the German States and in the American Colonies there was a 
noticeable shifting of emphasis from the older exclusively religious 
purpose toward a newer conception of education as preparation 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 233 

• 

for life in the world here. Still, one learned to read chiefly "to 
learn some orthodox Catechism," "to read fluently in the New 
Testament," and to know the will of God, or, as stated in the law 
of the Connecticut Colony (R. 193), "in some competent measure 
to understand tlfe main grounds and principles of Christian re- 
ligion necessary' to salvation."" The teacher was still carefully 
looked after as tb his "soundness in the faith" (R. 238 a); he was 
required "to catechise his scholars in the principles of the Chris- 
tian religion," and "to commend his labors amongst them unto 
God by prayer morning and evening, taking care that his scholars 
do reverently attend during the same." The minister in practi- 
cally all lands examined the children as to their knowledge of the 
Catechism and the Bible, and on his visits quizzed them as to the 
Sunday sermon. 

In Church-of-England schools " the End and Chief Design " of the 
schools established continued to be instruction in " the Knowledge 
and Practice of the Christian Religion as Professed and Taught in 
the Church of England" (R. 238 b). In German lands the ele- 
mentary vernacular school was still regarded as " the portico of 
the Temple," " Christianity its principal work," and not as "mere 
estabHshments preparatory to pubhc Kfe, but be pervaded by the 
rehgious spirit." In the schools of La Salle's organization, 
which was most prominent in elementary vernacular education 
in CathoJic France, the aim continued to be (R. 182) "to teach 
them to Hve honestly and uprightly, by instructing them in the 
principles of our holy religion and by teaching them Christian 
precepts." 

Weakening of the old religious theory. By the middle of the 
eighteenth century, however, there is a noticeable weakening of 
the hold of the old religious theory on the schools in most Protes- 
tant lands. In England there was a marked relaxation of the 
old religious intolerance in educational matters as the century 
proceeded, and new textbooks, embodying but Uttle of the old 
gloomy religious material, appeared and began to be used. Co- 
incident with this growth of religious tolerance among the 
Enghsh we find the Church of England redoubling its efforts 
to hold the children of its adherents, by the organization of 
parish schools and the creation of a vast system of charitable 
religious schools. In German lands, too, a marked shifting of 
emphasis away from solely religious ends and toward the needs, 
of the government began, toward the end of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, to be evident. 



^UiyilJiWapWIil^W 



234 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

It was in the American Colonies, though, that the waning of the 
old reHgious interest was most notable. Due to rude frontier 
conditions, the decline in force of the old religious-town govern- 
ments, the diversity of sects, the rise of new trade and civil in- 
terests, and the breakdown of old-home connections, the hold on 
the people of the old religious doctrines was weakened there ear- 
lier than in the old world. By 1750 the change in religious think- 
ing in America had become quite marked. 

Studies and textbooks. The studies of the elementary vernac- 
ular school remained, throughout the whole of the eighteenth 
century, much as before, namely, reading, 
a Httle writing and ciphering, some spell- 
ing, religion, and in Teutonic countries a 
little music. La Salle (R. 182) had pre- 
scribed, for the CathoHc vernacular schools 
of France, instruction in French, some 
Latin, ''orthography, arithmetic, the 
matins and vespers, le Pater, 1 Ave Maria, 
le Credo et le Confiteor, the Command- 
ments, responses. Catechism, duties of a 
Christian, and maxims and precepts drawn 
from the Testament." The Catechism 
was to be taught one half-hour daily. The 
schoolbooks in England in Locke's day, as 
he tells us in his Thoughts, were " the Horn 
Book, Primer, Psalter, Testament, and 
Bible." These indicate merely a religious 
vernacular school. The purpose stated 
for the Enghsh Church charity-schools 
(R. 238 b), schools that attained to large 
importance in England and the Ameri- 
can Colonies during the eighteenth cen- 
tury, shows them to have been, similarly, reUgious vernacular 
schools. The School Regulations which Frederick the Great 
promulgated for Prussia (1763), fixed the textbooks to be used 
(R. 274, § 20), and indicate that the instruction in Prussia was 
still restricted to reading, writing, religion, singing, and a little 
arithmetic. In colonial America, Noah Webster's description 
(R. 230) of the schools he attended in Connecticut, about 1764-70, 
shows that the studies and textbooks were "chiefly or wholly 
Dilworth's Spelling Books, the Psalter, Testament, and Bible," 



ilmnopqr?f 

IntDe^amtofGODtlje 

S OrJ*^' t)et.tDt)icJ) art in 0ta- 
«-/t)tn.©aloto<i) be t{)pi&atrt» 
ZX\p Rjnoeom tomes^Dp ujtl \» 
lont lu eartD.aait iS mljtatocm 
5(nf t)« tftifl Dap our Da«p biean 
JnO f ojfltue tin our tcefpaOes,^ 
®tt fo;B«ue t\ym t!)at tret^ffc 
saatna««»IBnD Uabeuanonnw 
rmpMtwn.40ui BciiDtrbBfton* 
ii)ill;f«>Mt)tne«0J{)eK«nflOonie, 
potocr.atiia BlWfe.f« tJ»r 2lmttt> 



Fig. 49. A Horn Book 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 235 

vdth a little writing and ciphering. A few words of description 
of these older books may prove useful here. 

The Horn Book. The Horn Book goes back to the close of 
the fifteenth century, and by the end of the sixteenth century 
was in common use throughout England. Somewhat similar 
alphabet boards, lacking the handle, were also used in Holland, 
France, and in German lands. This, a thin oak board on which 
was pasted a printed slip, covered by translucent horn, was the 
book from which children learned their letters and began to read, 
the mastery of which usually required some time. The Horn 
Book was much used well into the eighteenth century, but its 
reading matter was in time incorporated into the school Primer, 
now evolved out of an earHer elementary religious manual. 

The Primer. Originally the child next passed to the Cate- 
chism and the Bible, but about the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury the Primer began to be used. The Primer in its original 
form was a simple manual of devotion for the laity^ compiled 
without any thought of its use in the schools. It contained the 
Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and a few of 
the miore commonly used prayers and psalms. The Catechism 
soon was added, and with the prefixing of the alphabet and a few 
syllables and words it was transformed, as schools arose, into the 
first reading book for children. There was at first no attempt at 
grading, illustration, or the introduction of easy reading material. 
About the close of the seventeenth century the illustrated Primer, 
with some attempt at grading and some additional subject-mat- 
ter, made its appearance, both in England and America, and at 
once leaped into great popularity. 

The idea possibly goes back to the Orbis Pictus (1654) of Co- 
menius (p. 223: R. 221), the first illustrated schoolbook ever 
written. The first EngHsh Primer adapted to school use was The 
Protestant Tutor, a rather rabid anti-Catholic work which ap- 
peared in London, about 1685. It was an abridgment of this 
book which the same pubHsher brought out in Boston, about 
1690^ under the name of The New England Primer (R. 202). 

This new work at once leaped into great popularity, and be- 
came the accepted reading book in all the schools of the Ameri 
can Colonies except those under the Church of England, For 
the next century and a quarter it was the chief school and reading 
book in use among the Dissenters and Lutherans in America 
Schoolmasters drilled the children on the reading matter and the 



236 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



Catechism it contained^ and the people recited from it yearly in 
the churches. It was also used for such spelling as was given. It 
was the first great American textbook success, and was still in 
use in the Boston dame schools as late as 1806. It was reprinted 
in England, and enjoyed a great sale among Dissenters there. Its 
sales in America alone have been estimated at least three million 
copies. The sale in Europe was also large. 

The Catechism. In all Protestant German lands the Shorter 
Catechism prepared by Luther, or the later Heidelberg Cate- 
chism, in Calvinistic 
lands the Catechism of 
Calvin , and in England 
and the American Col- 
onies the Westminster 
Catechism formed the 
backbone of the religious 
QTZ^^ ^ ^ »' <^ ^^^f £»<J ^fMan P instruction. Teachers 

these as thoroughly as 
on any other subject, 
writing masters set as 
copies sentences from 
the book, children were 
required to memorize 
the answers, and the doc- 
trines contained were 
emphasized by teacher 
and preacher so that the 
children were saturated 
with the religious ideas 
set forth. No book ex- 
cept the Bible did so 
much to form the char- 
acter, and none so much to fix the religious bias of the children. 
Almost equal importance was given to the Catechism in Catholic 
lands (R. 182, §§ 21-22), though there supplemented by more 
religious influences derived from the ceremonial of the Church. 
Spellers. The next step forward, in the transition from the re- 
ligious Primer to secular reading matter for school children, came 
in the use of the so-called Spellers After about 1740 such books 
became very popular, due to the publication that year of Thomas 



THE 

SHORTER CATECHISM, 

Agreed upon by the Reverend Assemble 
of Di V I N E $ at PVtfiinififitr. 

'HAT it the chief Ena f>f Man P 
A. Man's chief End is lo glorirp 
God and eujoy htm forever* 

Q. What Rutehiih C^dgivtotodfuif ut 
htii/ Mie may gUftfy and enfoy him t 

/• The Word o* God which is contained in 
the ScripTiresgl ihe Old and New Teftameni, 
Is the only rule to diredl us hoi7 -we ma> 
glorlly end enjoj Him. 
Q. IVhaf do the Seriptur^ prtncipa!^ t(Gch^ 
A. TAc Scirpnirci principally teach what 
Man Isiu believe coftcemi«gGod, and whar 
Puty God requires of Man. 

Q, What it God t 

A. God Is a Spirits Infinite. EierniTand 
unchangfsble, In his Being, Wifdom, Pay^- 
tC# Hofincts, Jjrticc, Goodnefj and Tnuh, 

Q» Aft ihtn mo ft Godt than Oot f 

Fig. 50. The Westminster Catechism 
(A page from The New England Primer, natural size) 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 237 



Dilworth's A New Guide to the English Tongue. This book con- 
tained, as the title-page (R. 229) declared, selected lists of words 
with rules for their pronunciation, a short treatise on grammar, a 
collection of fables with illustrations for reading, some moral selec- 
tions, and forms of prayer for children. It became very popular in 
New as well as in old England, and was followed by a long line 
of imitators, culminating in America in the publication of Noah 
Webster's famous blue-backed American Spelling Book, in 1783. 
This was after the plan of the English Dilworth, but was put in 
better teaching form. It contained numerous graded lists of 
words, some illustrations, a series of graded reading lessons, and 
was largely secular in character. It at once superseded the expir- 
ing New England Primer in most of the American cities, and contin- 
ued popular in the United States for more than a hundred years. 
It was the second great American textbook success, and was 
followed by a long list of popular Spellers and Readers, leading 
up to the excellent secular Read- 
ers of the present day. 

Arithmetic and Writing, The 
first EngHsh Arithmetic, published 
about 1540 to 1542^ has been en- 
tirely lost, and was probably read 
by few. The first to attain any 
popularity was Cocker's Arithmetic 
(1677), this "^^ Being a Plain and 
FamiHar Method suitable to the 
meanest Capacity, for the un- 
derstanding of that incomparable 
Art." A still more popular book 
was Arithmetick: or that Necessary 
Art Made Most Easie, by J. Hod- 
der, Writing Master, a reprint of 
which appeared in Boston, in 
1 7 19. The first book written by 
an American author was Isaac 
Greenwood's Arithmetick, Vulgar 
and Decimal, which appeared in 
Boston, in 1729. In 1743 appeared Dilworth's The Schoolmaster'^ 
Assistant, a book which retained its popularity in both England 
and America until after the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

No text in Arithmetic is mentioned in the School Regulations 




Fig. 51. Frontispiece to Noah 

Webster's "American 

Spelling Book" 

This is from the 1827 edition, reduced 
one third in size. 



238 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

of Frederick the Great (R. 274, § 20), or in scarcely any of the de- 
scriptions left us of eighteenth-century schools. The study itself 
was common, but not universal, and was one that many teachers 
were not competent to teach. To possess a reputation as an 
" arithme ticker " was an important recommendation for a teacher, 
while for a pupil to be able to do sums in arithmetic was unusual, 
and a matter of much pride to parents. The subject was fre- 
quently taught by the writing master, in a separate school, while 
the reading teacher confined himself to reading, spelling, and re- 
ligion. The teacher might or might not possess an arithmetic of his 
own, but the instruction to the pupil was practically always dic- 
tated and copied instruction. Each pupil made up his own book 
of rules and solved problems, and few pupils ever saw a printed 
arithmetic. Many of the early arithmetics were prepared after 
the catechism plan. There was almost no attempt to use the 
subject for drill in reasoning or to give a concrete type of instruc- 
tion, before about the middle of the eighteenth century, and 
but little along such reform lines was accomplished until after 
the beginning of the nineteenth century. 

Writing, similarly, was taught by dictation and practice, and 
the art of the "scrivener," as the writing master was called, was 
one thought to be difficult to learn. The lack of practical value 
of the art, the high cost of paper, and the necessity usually for 
special lessons, all alike tended to make writing a much less 
commonly known art than reading. Fees also were frequently 
charged for instruction in writing and arithmetic; reading, spell- 
ing, and religion being the only free subjects. The scrivener and 
the arithmetic teacher also frequently moved about, as business 
warranted, and was not fixed as was the teacher of the reading 
school. 

The teachers. The development of the vernacular school was 
retarded not only by the dominance of the religious purpose of the 
school, but by the poor quality of teachers found everywhere in 
the schools. The evolution of the elementary-school teacher of 
to-day out of the church sexton, bell-ringer, or grave-digger, or 
out of the artisan, cripple, or old dame who added school teaching 
to other employment in order to live, forms one of the interesting 
as well as one of the yet-to-be-written chapters in the history of 
the evolution of the elementary school. 

Teachers in elementary schools everywhere in the eighteenth 
century were few in number, poor in quality, and occupied but 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 239 




a lowly position in the social scale. School dames in England. 
(R. 235) and later in the American Colonies, and on the continent 
of Europe teachers who were more sextons, choristers, beadles, 
bell-ringers, grave-diggers, shoemakers, tailors, barbers, pension- 
ers, and invalids than teachers, too often formed the teaching body 
for the elementary vernacular school (RSc 231, 232, 233). In 
Dutch, German, and Scandinavian lands, and in colonies founded 
by these people in America, the parish 
school, closely tied up with and de- 
pendent upon the parish church, was 
the prevailing type of vernacular 
school, and in this the teacher was re- 
garded as essentially an assistant to the 
pastor (R. 236) and the school as a de- 
pendency of the Church. 

In England, in addition to regular 
parish schools and endowed element- 
ary schools, three peculiar institutions, 
known as the Dame School, the reli- 
gious charity-school, and the private- 
adventure or ''hedge school" had 
grown up, and the first two of these 
had reached a marked development 
by the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. Because these were so charac- 
teristic of early English educational effort, and also played such 
an important part in the American Colonies as well, they merit 
a few words of description at this point. 

The Dame School. The Dame School arose in England after 
the Reformation. By means of it the increasing desire for a rudi- 
mentary knowledge of the art of reading could be satisfied, and at 
the same time certain women could earn a pittance. This type of 
school was carried early to the American Colonies, and out of it 
was in time evolved, in New England, the American elementary 
school. The Dame School was a very elementary school, kept in 
a kitchen or living-room by some woman who, in her youth, had 
obtained the rudiments of an education, and who now desired to 
earn a small stipend for herself by imparting to the children of her 
neighborhood her small store of learning. For a few pennies a 
week the dame took the children into her home and explained to 
them the mysteries connected with learning the beginnings of 



Fig. 52. A "Christian 
Brothers" School 

La Salle teaching at Grenoble. 
Note the adult type of dress of 
the boys. 



240 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

reading and spelling. Occasionally a little writing and counting 
also were taught, though not often in England. In the American 
Colonies the practical situations of a new country forced the em- 
ployment as teachers of women who could teach all three sub- 
jects, thus early creating the American school of the so-called 
'^3 Rs" — " Reading, Riting, Rithmetic." The Dame School ap- 
pears so frequently in EngHsh Uterature, both poetry and prose, 
that it must have played a very important part in the beginnings 
of elementary education in England. Of this school Shenstone 
(1714-63) writes (R. 235): 

In every village marked with little spire, 
Embowered in trees, and hardly known to fame, 
There dwells, in lowly shed and mean attire, 
A matron old, whom we schoolmistress name. 
Who boasts unruly brats with birch to tame. 

This school flourished greatly in America during the eighteenth 
century, but with the coming of Infant Schools, early in the nine- 
teenth, was merged into these to form the American Primary 
School. 

The religious charity-school. Another thoroughly characteris- 
tic EngHsh institution was the church charity-school. The first 
of these was founded in Whitechapel, London, in 1680. In 1699, 
when the School of Saint Anne, Soho (R. 237), was founded by 
^'Five Earnest Laymen for the Poore Boys of the Parish," it was 
the sixth of its kind in England. In 1699 the ''Society for the 
Promotion of Christian Knowledge" (S.P.C.K.) was founded for 
the purpose, among other things, of estabHshing catechetical 
schools for the education of the children of the poor in the princi- 
ples of the Established Church (R. 238 b). To develop piety and 
help the poor to lead industrious, upright, self-respecting lives, 
''to make them loyal Church members, and to fit them for 
work in that station of life in which it had pleased their 
Heavenly Father to place them," were the principal objects 
of the Society. 

All were taught reading, spelHng, and the Catechism, and in- 
struction in writing and arithmetic might be added. The train- 
ing might also be coupled with that of the "schools of industry" 
(workhouse schools, as described by Locke [R. 217]) to augment 
the economic efficiency of the boy. Girls seem to have been 
provided for almost equally with boys, and, in addition to being 
taught to read and spell, were taught "to knit their Stockings 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 241 




Fig. 53. 
A Charity- 
ScHooL Girl 
IN Uniform 

Saint Anne's, 
Soho, England 




and Gloves, to Mark, Sew, and make and mend their Cloathes." 
Both boys ^nd girls were usually provided with books and cloth- 
ing, a regular uniform being 
worn by the boys and girls 
of each school. 

The chief mo tive in the estab- 
Hshment of these schools, 
though, was to decrease the 
''Prophaness and Debauch- 
ery . . . owing to a gross 
Ignorance of the Christian 
Religion" (R. 237) and to 
educate "Poor Children in 
the Rules and Principles of 
the Christian Religion as pro- 
fessed and taught in the Church 
of England." From England 
the charity-school idea was 
early carried to the AngHcan 
Colonies in America and be- 
came a fixed institution in New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and some- 
what in the Colonies farther south. In the Pennsylvania con 
stitution of 1790 we find the following directions for the estab- 
lishment of a state charity-school system to supplement the 
parish schools of the churches: 

Sec. I. The legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may be, 
provide, by law, for the establishment of schools throughout the 
State, in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis. 

The first Pennsylvania school law of 1802 carried this direction 
into effect by providing for pauper schools in the counties, a 
condition that was not done away with until 1834. In New 
Jersey the system lasted until 1838. 

The private-adventure, or " hedge," school. This was a 
school analogous to the Dame School, but was kept by a man 
instead of a woman, and usually at his home or shop. Ofttimes 
the school was kept secretly, to avoid church or state inspection, 
and then was known as a "hedge school." The term soon came 
to be applied to any kind of a poor school, taught in an irreg- 



FiG. 54. 

A Charity- School 

Boy in Uniform 

Saint Anne's, 
Soho, England 



242 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ular manner or place. Similar irregular schools, under equiva- 
lent names, also were found in German lands, the Netherlands, 
and in France, while in the American Colonies "indentured 
white servants" were frequently let out as schoolmasters. 
The following advertisement of a teacher for sale is typical 
of private-adventure elementary school-keeping during the col- 
onial period. These schools were taught by itinerant school- 

To Be DISPOSED of, 

A Likely Servant Mans Time for 4 Years 
who is very well Qualified for a Clerk or to teach 
a School, he Reads, Writes, undcrftands Arithmetick and 
Accompts very well, Enquire of the Printer hereof. 

^* I* 

Fig. 55. Advertisement for a Teacher to let 

(From the American Weekly Mercury of Philadelphia, 1735) 

keepers, artisans, and tutors of the poorer type, but offered the 
beginnings of elementary education to many a child who other- 
wise would never have been able to learn to read. In the early 
eighteenth century these schools attained a remarkable develop- 
ment in England. 

A new influence of tremendous future importance — general 
reading — was now coming in ; the vernacular was fast supplant- 
ing Latin; newspapers were being started; little books or pam- 
phlets (tracts) containing general information were being sold; 
books for children and beginners were being written ; the popular 
novel and story had appeared; and all these educative forces 
were creating a new and a somewhat general desire for a knowl- 
edge of the art of reading. This in turn caused a new demand 
for schools to teach the long-locked-up art, and this demand was 
capitahzed to the profit of many types of people. 

The apprenticing of orphans and children of the poor. The 
compulsory apprenticing of the children of the poor to a trade 
or to work was an old Enghsh institution, and workhouse train- 
ing, or the so-called "schools of industry," became, by the eight- 
eenth century, a prominent feature of the English care of the 
poor. These represented the only form of education supported 
by taxation, and the only form of education to which Parliament 
gave any attention during the whole of the eighteenth century. 
This type of institution also was carried to the AngHcan Colo- 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 243 

nies in America, as we have seen in the documents for Virginia (R. 
200 a.), and became an established institution in America as well. 
The apprenticing of boys to a trade, a still older institution, 
was also much used as a means for training youths for a life in the 
trades, not only in England and the American Colonies, but 
throughout all European lands as well. The conditions surround- 
ing the apprenticing of a boy had by the eighteenth century be- 
come quite fixed. The " Indenture of Apprenticeship " was drawn 
up by a lawyer, and by it the master was carefully bound to clothe 
and feed the boy, train him properly in his trade, look ^fter his 
morals, and start him in fife at the end of his apprenticeship. This 
is well shown in the many records which have been preserved, 
both in England (R. 242) and the American Colonies (R. 201). 
For many boys this type of education was the best possible at the 
time, and worthily started the possessor in the work of his trade. 

Methods of instruction. Throughout the eighteenth century 
the method of instruction commonly employed in the vernacular 
schools was what was known as the individual method. This was 
wasteful of both time and effort, and unpedagogical to a high de- 
gree (R. 244). Everywhere the teacher was engaged chiefly in 
hearing recitations, testing memory, and keeping order. The 
pupils came to the master's desk, one by one (see Figure 37, p. 177), 
and recited what they had memorized. Aside from imposing dis- 
cipline, teaching was an easy task. The pupils learned the as- 
signed lessons and recited what they had learned. Such a thing 
as methodology — ■ technique of instruction — was unknown. 
The dominance of the religious motive, too, precluded any liberal 
attitude in school instruction, the individual method was time- 
consuming, school buildings often were lacking, and in general 
there was an almost complete lack of any teaching equipment, 
books, or supplies. Viewed from any modern standpoint the 
schools of the eighteenth century attained to but a low degree of 
efficiency (R. 244). The school hours were long, the schoolmas- 
ter's residence or place of work or business was commonly used as 
a schoolroom, and such regular schoolrooms as did exist were 
dirty and noisy and but poorly suited to school purposes. Schools 
everywhere, too, were ungraded, the school of one teacher being 
like that of any other teacher of that class. 

Hearing lessons, assigning new tasks, setting copies, making 
quill pens, dictating sums, and imposing order completely ab- 
sorbed the time and the attention of the teacher. 



244 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



School discipline. The discipline everywhere was severe. *'A 
boy has a back; when you hit it he understands," was a favorite 
pedagogical maxim of the time. Whipping-posts were sometimes 

set up in the schoolroom, and practically 
all pictures of the schoolmasters of the 
time show a bundle of switches near 
at hand. Boys in the Latin grammar 
schools were flogged for petty offenses 
(R. 245). The ability to impose order 
on a poorly taught and, in consequence, 
an unruly school was always an impor- 




FiG. 56. A School 

WmPPING-PoST 

Drawn from a picture of a five- 
foot whipping-post which once 
stood in the floor of a school- 
house at Sunderland, Massa- 
chusetts. Now in the Deerfield 
Museum. 

tant requisite of the 
schoolmaster. ASwab- 
ian schoolmaster, Hau- 
berle by name, with 
characteristic Teutonic 
attention to details, has 
left on record ^ that, in 
the course of his fifty- 
one years and seven 
months as a teacher 
he had, by a moder- 
ate computation, given 
911,527 blows with a 
cane, 124,010 blows 
with a rod, 20,989 blows 
and raps with a ruler, 

^ Barnard, Henry. Trans- 
lated from Karl von Raumer; 
in his American Journal of 
Education, vol. v, p. 509. 




Fig. 57. An Eighteenth- Century German 
School 

Reproduction of an engraving by J. Mettenleiter, 
now in the Kupferstichkabinet, Munich, and printed 
in Joh. Ferd. Schlez's Dorfschulen zu Langenhausen, 
Nuremberg, 1795. 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 245 

136,715 blows with the hand, 10,235 blows over the mouth, 
7905 boxes on the ear, 1,115,800 raps on the head, and 22,763 
noiahenes with the Bible, Catechism, singing book, and grammar. 
He had 777 times made boys kneel on peas, 613 times on a triangu- 
lar piece of wood, had made 3001 wear the jackass, and 1707 hold 
the rod up, not to mention various more unusual punishments he 
had contrived on the spur of the occasion. Of the blows with the 
cane, 800,000 were for Latin words; of the rod 76,000 were for 
texts from the Bible or verses from the singing book. He also had 
about 3000 expressions to scold with, two thirds of which were 
native to the German tongue and the remainder his invention. 

Pedagogical writers of the time uniformly complain of the se- 
vere discipline of the schools, and the literature of the period 
abounds in allusions to the prevailing harshness of the school dis- 
cipline. A few writers condemn, but most approve heartily of the 
use of the rod. " Spare the rod and spoil the child" had for long 
been a well-grounded pedagogical doctrine. 

Conditions surrounding childhood. It is difficult for us of to- 
day to re-create in imagination the pitiful Hfe-conditions which 
surrounded children a century and a half ago. Often the lot of 
the children of the poor, who then constituted the great bulk of 
all children, was little less than slavery. Wretchedly poor, dirty, 
unkempt, hard-worked, beaten about, knowing strong drink 
early, illiterate, often vicious — their lot was a sad one. For the 
children of the poor there were few, if any, educational opportuni- 
ties. 

In the towns children were apprenticed out early in Kfe, and for 
long hours of daily labor. Child welfare was almost entirely neg- 
lected, children were cuffed about and beaten at their work, juve- 
nile delinquency was a common condition, child mortality was 
heavy, and ignorance was the rule. Schools generally were pay 
institutions or a charity, and not a birthright, and usually existed 
only for the middle and lower-middle classes in the population 
who were attendants at the churches and could afford to pay a 
little for the schooling given. Reading and religion were usually 
the only free subjects. Only in the New England Colonies, where 
the beginnings of town and colony school systems were evident, 
and in a few of the German States where state control was begin- 
ning to be exercised, was a better condition to be found. 

Amopg the middle and upper social classes, particularly on 
the continent of Europe, a stiff artificiality everywhere prevailed. 



246 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Children were dressed and treated as miniature adults, the normal 
activities of childhood were suppressed, and the natural interests 
and emotions of children found little opportunity for expression. 
Wearing powdered and braided hair, long gold-braided coats, em- 
broidered waistcoats, cockaded hats, and swords, boys were 
treated more as adults than as children. Girls, too, with their 
long dresses, hoops, powdered hair, rouged faces, and demure 
manner, were trained in a, for children, most unnatural man- 
ner. The dancing master for their manners and graces, and the 
reKgious instructor to develop in them the ability to read and 
to go through a largely meaningless ceremonial, were the chief 
guides for the period of their childhood. 

School support. No uniform plan, in any country, had as yet 
been evolved for even the meager support which the schools of the 
time received. The Latin grammar schools were in nearly all 
cases supported by the income from old ''foundations" and from 
students' fees, with here and there some state aid. The new ele- 
mentary vernacular schools, though, had had assigned to them 
few old foundations upon which to draw for maintenance, and in 
consequence support for elementary schools had to be built up 
from new sources, and this required time. 

We thus find in most lands endowed elementary schools, 
parish schools, dame schools, private-adventure schools of many 
types, and charity-schools, all existing side by side, and draw- 
ing such support as they could from endowment funds, parish 
rates, church tithes, subscriptions, and tuition fees. The support 
of schools by subscription Hsts (R. 240) was a very common pro- 
ceeding. Education in England, more than in any other Protes- 
tant land, early came to be regarded as a benevolence which the 
State was under no obligation to support. Only workhouse 
schools were provided for by the general taxation of all property. 

In the Netherlands and in German lands church funds, town 
funds, and tuition fees were the chief means of support, though 
here and there some prince had provided for something approach- 
ing state support for the schools of his Httle principaHty. Fred- 
erick the Great had ordered schools established generally (1763) 
and had decreed the compulsory attendance of children (R. 274), 
but he had depended largely on church funds and tuition fees (§7) 
for maintenance, with a proviso that the tuition of poor and or- 
phaned children should be paid from " any funds of the chjarch or 
town, that the schoolmaster may get his income " (§8). In Scot- 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 247 

land the church parish school was the prevailing type. In France 
the religious societies (p. 183) provided nearly all the elementary 
vernacular religious education that was obtainable. 

Beginnings of state control and maintenance. In the Dutch 
Provinces, in the New England Colonies, and in some of the minor 
German States and in Switzerland we find the clearest examples 
of the beginnings of state control and maintenance of elementary 
schools — something destined to grow rapidly and in the nine- 
teenth century take over the school from the Church and main- 
tain it as a function of the State. The Prussian kings early made 
grants of land and money for endowment funds and support, and 
state aid was ordered granted by Maria Theresa for Austria (R. 
274 a), in 1774. In the New England Colonies the separation of 
the school from the Church, and the beginnings of state support 
and control of education, found perhaps their earhest and clearest 
exemplification. In the other Colonies the lottery was much 
used (R. 246) to raise funds for schools, while church tithes, sub- 
scription lists, and school societies after the English pattern also 
helped in many places to start and support a school or schools. 

Only by some such means was it possible in the eighteenth cen- 
tury that the children of the poor could ever enjoy any opportuni- 
ties for education. The parents of the poor children, themselves 
uneducated, could hardly be expected to provide what they had 
never come to appreciate themselves. On the other hand, few of 
the well-to-do classes felt under any obligation to provide educa- 
tion for children not their own. There was as yet no realization 
that the diffusion of education contributed to the welfare of the 
State, or that the ignorance of the masses might be in any way a 
pubHc peril. This attitude is well shown for England by the fact 
that not a single law relating to the education of the people, aside 
from workhouse schools, was enacted by Parliament during the 
whole of the eighteenth century. The same was true of France 
until the coming of the Revolution. It is to a few of the German 
States and to the American Colonies that we must turn for the 
beginnings of legislation directing school support. This we shall 
describe more in detail in later chapters. 

The Latin Secondary School. Th^^reat progress made in edu- 
cation during the eighteenth century, nevertheless, was in ele- 
mentary education. Concerning the secondary schools and the 
universities there is little to add to what has previously been said. 
During this century the secondary school, outside of German 



248 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




Fig. 58. A Pennsylvania Academy 
York Academy, York, Pennsylvania, 
founded by the Protestant Episcopal 
Church, in 1787. 



lands, remained largely stationary. Having become formal and 
lifeless in its teaching (p. 150), and in England and France 
crushed by religious-uniformity legislation (p. 172), the Latin 
grammar school of England and the surviving colleges in France 
practically ceased to exert any influence on the national life. 

Rise of the Academy in America. As we have seen (p. 193), 
the English Latin grammar school was early (1635) carried to New 
England, and set up there and elsewhere in the Colonies, but after 

the close of the seventeenth 
century its continued main- 
tenance was something of a 
struggle. Particularly in the 
central and southern colonies, 
where commercial demands 
early made themselves felt, the 
tendency was to teach more 
practical subjects. This tend- 
ency led to the evolution, about 
the middle of the eighteenth 
century, of the distinctively 
American Academy, with a 
more practical curriculum, and by the close of the century it 
was rapidly superseding the older Latin grammar school. 

Though still deeply religious, these schools usually were free 
from denominationaHsm. Though retaining the study of Latin, 
they made most of new subjects of more practical value. A study 
of real things rather than words about things, and a new emphasis 
on the native Enghsh and on science were prominent features of 
their work. They were also usually open to girls, as well as boys, 
— an innovation in secondary education before almost wholly 
unknown. Many were organized later for girls only. These 
institutions were the precursors of the American pubhc high 
school, itself a type of the most democratic institution for second- 
ary education the world has ever known. 

End of the transition period. We have now reached, in our 
study of the history of educational progress, the end of the transi- 
tion period which marked the change in thinking from mediasval 
to modern attitudes. The period was ushered in with the .begin- 
nings- of the Revival of Learning in Italy in the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and it may fittingly close about the middle of the eighteenth. 
We now stand on the threshold of a new era in world history 



THEORY AND PRACTICE BY 1750 249 

The same questioning spirit that animated the scholars of the 
Revival of Learning, now full-grown and become bold and self- 
confident, is about to be applied to affairs of politics and govern- 
ment, and we are soon to see absolutism and mediaeval attitudes 
in both Church and State questioned and overthrown. New 
poHtical theories are to be advanced, and the divine right of the 
people is to be asserted and estabhshed in England, the American 
Colonies, and in France, and ultimately, early in the twentieth 
century, we are to witness the final overthrow of the divine-right- 
of-kings idea and a world-wide sweep of the democratic spirit. 
A new human and political theory as to education is to be evolved ; 
the school is to be taken over from the Church, vastly expanded 
in scope, and made a constructive instrument of the State; and 
the wonderful nineteenth century is to witness a degree of human, 
scientific, political, and educational progress not seen before in 
all the days from the time of the Crusades to the opening of the 
nineteenth century. It is to this wonderful new era in world 
history that we now turn. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Contrast a religious elementary school, with the Catechism as its chief 
textbook, with a modern pubUc elementary school, 

2. Contrast the elementary schools of Mulcaster and Comenius. 

3. To what extent did the religious teachings of the time support Locke's 
ideas as to the disciplinary conception of education? 

4. Do we to-day place as much emphasis on habit formation as did Locke? 
On character? On good breeding? 

5. State some of the reasons for the noticeable weakening of the hold of the 
old religious theory as to education, in Protestant lands, by the middle 
of the eighteenth century. 

6. How do you explain the slow evolution of the elementary teacher into a 
position of some importance? Is the evolution still in process? Illus- 
trate. 

7. What were the motives behind the organization ol the religious charity- 
schools? 

8. Show how tax-supported workhouse schools represented, for England, 
the first step in public-school maintenance. 

9. Show that teaching under the individual method of instruction was 
school keeping, rather than school teaching. 

10. How do you explain the general prevalence of harsh discipline well into 
the nineteenth century? 

11. Did any other country have, in the eighteenth century, so mixed a type 
of elementary education as did England? Why was it so badly mixed 
there? 

12. Show how the English Act of Conformity, of 1662, stifled the English 
Latin grammar schools. 

13. What reasons were there for the development of the more practical 
Academy in America, rather than in England? 

14. Compare the American Academy with the German Realschule. 



250 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying 5oo^ of Readings the following selections, illustrative 
of the contents of this chapter, are reproduced: 

226. Mulcaster: Table of Contents of his Positions. 

227. Locke: On the Teaching of Latin. 

228. Locke: On the Bible as a Reading Book. 

229. Coote-Dilworth: Two early "SpeUing Books." 

230. Webster: Description of Pre-Revolutionary Schools. 

231. Raumer: Teachers in Gotha in 1741. 

232. Raumer: An i8th Century Swedish People's School. 

233. Raumer: Schools of Frankfurt-am-Main during the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury. 

234. Kriisi: A Swiss Teacher's Examination in 1793. 

235. Crabbe; White; Shenstone: The English Dame School described. 

236. Newburgh: A Parochial-School Teacher's Agreement. 

237. Saint Anne: Beginnings of an English Charity School. 

238. Regulations: Charity-School Organization and Instruction. 

(a) Quahfications for the Master. 

(b) Purpose and Instruction. 

239. Allen and McClure: Textbooks used in English Charity-Schools. 

240. England: A Charity-School Subscription Form. 

241. Southwark: The Charity-School of Saint John's Parish. 

242. Gorsham: An Eighteenth-Century Indenture of Apprenticeship. 

243. Indenture: Learning the Trade of a Schoolmaster. 

244. Diesterweg: The Schools of Germany before Pestalozzi. 

245. England: Free School Rules, 1734. 

246. Murray: A New Jersey School Lottery. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Allen, W. O. B., and McClure, E. Two Hundred Years; History of the 

S.P.C.K., 1698-1808. 
Barnard, Henry. English Pedagogy, Part 11, The Teacher in EngHsh 
Literature. 
*Birchenough, C. History of Elementary Education in England and Wales. 
Brown, E. E. The Making of our Middle Schools. 
Cardwell, J. F. The Story of a Charity School. 
Davidson, Thos. Rousseau. 
*Earle, Alice M. Child Life in Colonial Days. 
Field, Mrs. E. M. The Child and his Book. 
Ford, Paul L. The New England Primer. 
Godfrey, Elizabeth. English Children in the Olden Time. 
*Johnson, Clifton. Old Time Schools and School Books. 
*Kemp, W. W. The Support of Schools in Colonial New York by the Society 
for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. 
Kilpatrick, Wm. H. Diitch Schools of New Netherlands and Colonial New 

York. 
Locke, John. Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). 
*Montmorency, J. E. G. de. Progress of Education in England. 
Montmorency, J. E. G. de. State Intervention in English Education. 
Mulcaster, Richard. Positions. (London, 1581.) 
*Paulsen, Friedrich. German Education, Past and Present. 
*Salmon, David. "The Education of the Poor in the Eighteenth Cen- 
tury"; reprinted from the Educational Record. (London, 1908.) 
*Scott, J. F. Historic Essays on Apprenticeship and Vocational Education. 
(Ann Arbor, 19 14.) 



PART IV 

MODERN TIMES 

• 

THE ABOLITION OF PRIVILEGE 

THE RISE OF DEMOCRACY 

A NEW THEORY FOR EDUCATION EVOLVED 

THE STATE TAKES OVER THE SCHOOL 



CHAPTER XIX 
THE EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 

The eighteenth century a turning-point. The eighteenth cen- 
tury, in human thinking and progress, marks for most western 
nations the end of mediaevaHsm and the ushering-in of modern 
forms of intellectual liberty. The indifference to the old religious 
problems, which was clearly manifest in all countries at the be- 
ginning of the century, steadily grew and culminated in a revolt 
against ecclesiastical control over human affairs. This change in 
attitude toward the old problems permitted the rise of new types 
of intellectual inquiry, a rapid development of scientific thinking 
and discovery, the growth of a consciousness of national problems 
and national welfare, and the bringing to the front of secular 
interests to a degree practically unknown since the days of ancient 
Rome. In a sense the general rise of these new interests in the 
eighteenth century was but a culmination of a long series of move- 
ments looking toward greater intellectual freedom and needed 
human progress which had been under way since the days when 
studia generalia and guilds first arose in western Europe. The 
rise of the universities in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, 
the Revival of Learning in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, 
the Protestant Revolts in the sixteenth, the rise of modern scien- 
tific inquiry in the sixteenth and seventeenth, and Puritanism in 
England and Pietism in Germany in the seventeenth, had all been 
in the nature of protests against the mediaeval tendency to con- 
fine and limit and enslave the intellect. In the eighteenth cen- 
tury the culmination of this rising tide of protest came in a gen- 
eral and determined revolt against despotism in either Church or 
State, which, at the close of the century, swept away ancient priv- 
ileges, abuses, and barriers, and prepared the way for the marked 
intellectual and human and political progress which characterized 
the nineteenth century. 

Significance of the change in attitude. The new spirit and 
interests and attitudes which came to characterize the eighteenth 
century in the more progressive western nations meant the ulti- 
mate overthrow of the tyranny of mediaeval supernatural the- 
ology, the evolution of a new theory as to moral action which 



254 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

should be independent of theology, the freeing of the new scien- 
tific spirit from the fetters of church control, the substituting of 
new philosophical and scientific and economic interests for the 
old theological problems which had for so long dominated human 
thinking, the substitution of natural poHtical organization for the 
older ecclesiastical foundations of the State, the destruction of 
what remained of the old feudal poHtical system, the freeing of • 
the serf and the evolution of the citizen, and the rise of a modern 
society interested in problems of national welfare — government 
in the interest of the governed, commerce, industry, science, eco- 
nomics, education, and social welfare. The evolution of such 
modern-type governments inevitably meant the creation of en- 
tirely new demands for the education of the people and for far- 
reaching political and social reforms. 

This new eighteenth-century spirit, which so characterized the 
mid-eighteenth century that it is often spoken of as the "Period 
of the Enlightenment," expressed itself in many new directions, 
a few of the more important of which will be considered here as 
of fundamental concern for the student of the history of educa- 
tional progress. In a very real sense the development of state 
educational systems, in both European and American States, has 
been an outgrowth of the great Hberalizing forces which first made 
themselves felt in a really determined way during this important 
transition century. In this chapter we shall consider briefly five 
important phases of this new eighteenth-century liberaHsm, as 
follows : 

1. The work of the benevolent despots of continental Europe in 
trying to shape their governments to harmonize them with the 
new spirit of the century. 

2. The unsatisfied demand for reform in France. 

3. The rise of democratic government and liberalism in England. 

4. The institution of constitutional government and religious free- 
dom in America. 

5. The sweeping away of mediaeval abuses in the great Revolution 
in France. 

I. WORK OF THE BENEVOLENT DESPOTS OF CONTINENTAL 

EUROPE 

The new nationalism leads to interested government. In Eng- 
land, as we shall trace a Httle further on, a democratic form of 
government had for long been developing, but this democratic 
life had made but little headway on the continent of Europe. 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 255 

There, instead, the democratic tendencies which showed some 
slight signs of development during the sixteenth century had been 
stamped out in the period of warfare and the ensuing hatreds of 
the seventeenth, and in the eighteenth century we find autocratic 
government at its height. National governments to succeed the 
earher government of the Church had developed and grown 
strong, the kingly power had everywhere been consolidated. 
Church and State were in close working alliance, and the new 
spirit of nationahty — in government, foreign policy, languages, 
literature, and culture — was being energetically developed by 
those responsible for the welfare of the States. Everywhere, al- 
most, on the continent of Europe, the theory of the divine right 
of kings to rule and the divine duty of subjects to obey seemed to 
have become fixed , and this theory of government the Church now 
most assiduously supported. Unlike in England and the Ameri- 
can Colonies, the people of the larger countries of continental 
Europe had not as yet advanced far enough in personal liberty 
or poHtical thinking to make any demand of consequence for the 
right to govern themselves. The new spirit of nationality abroad 
in Europe, though, as well as the new humanitarian ideas begin- 
ning to stir thinking men, alike tended to awaken a new interest 
on the part of many rulers in the welfare of the people they 
governed. In consequence, during the eighteenth century, we 
find a number of nations in which the rulers, putting themselves 
in harmony with the new spirit of the time, made earnest attempts 
to improve the condition of their peoples as a means of advancing 
the national welfare. We shall here mention the four nations in 
which the most conspicuous reform work was attempted. 

The rulers of Prussia. Three kings, to whom the nineteenth- 
century greatness of Prussia was largely due, ruled the country 
during nearly the whole of the eighteenth century. They were 
fully as despotic as the kings of France, but, unlike the French 
kings, they were keenly alive to the needs of the people, anxious 
to advance The welfare of the State, tolerant in religion, and in 
sympathy with the new scientific studies. The first, Frederick 
William I (1713-40), labored earnestly to develop the resources 
of the Country, trained a large army, ordered elementary education 
made compulsory, and made the beginnings in the royal provinces 
of the transformation of the schools from the control of the 
Church to the control of the State. His son, known to history 
as Frederick the Great, ruled from 1740 to 1786. During his long 



256 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

reign he labored continually to curtail ancient privileges, abolish 
old abuses, and improve the condition of his people. 

His rule, though, was thoroughly autocratic. '^Everything 
for the people, but nothing by the people," was the keynote of his 
policies. He had no confidence in the ability of the people to 
rule, and gave them no opportunity to learn the art. He em- 
ployed the strong army his father built up to wage wars of con- 
quest, seize territory that did not belong to him, and in conse- 
quence made himself a great German hero. He may be said to 
have laid the foundations of modern militarized, socialized, obedi- 
ently educated, and subject Germany, and also to have begun the 
"grand-larceny" and ''scrap-of -paper" poHcy which has charac- 
terized Prussian international relationships ever since. . Freder- 
ick William H, who reigned from 1786 to 1797, continued in large 
measure the enlightened policies of his uncle, ^reformed the tax 
system, lightened the burdens of his people, encouraged trade, 
emphasized the German tongue, quickened the national spirit, 
j,ctively encouraged schools and universities, and began that 
centralization of authority over the developing educational sys- 
tem which resulted in the creation in Prussia of the first modern 
state school system in Europe. The educational work of these 
three Prussian kings was indeed important, and we shall study it 
more in detail in a later chapter (chapter xxii). 

The Austrian reformers. Two notably benevolent rulers occu- 
pied the Austrian throne for half a century, and did much to 
improve the condition of the Austrian people. A very remarkable 
woman, Maria Theresa, came to the throne in 1740, and was fol- 
lowed by her son, Joseph H, in 1780. He ruled until 1790. To 
Maria Theresa the Austria of the nineteenth century owed most of 
its development and power. She worked with seemingly tireless 
energy for the advancement of the welfare of her subjects, and 
toward the close of her reign laid, as we shall see in a later chap- 
ter, the beginnings of Austrian school reform . 

Joseph II carried still further his mother's benevolent work, 
and strove to introduce ''enlightenment and reason" into the 
administration of his realm. A student of the writings of the 
eighteenth-century reform philosophers, and deeply imbued with 
the reform spirit of his time, he attempted to aboKsh ancient 
privileges, establish a uniform code of justice, encourage educa- 
tion, free the serfs, abolish feudal tenure, grant religious tolera- 
tion, curb the power of the Pope and the Church, break the power 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 257 

of the local Diets, centralize the State, and "introduce a uniform 
level of democratic simpHcity under his own absolute sway." He 
attempted to alter the organization of the Church, aboHshed six 
hundred monasteries, and reduced the number of monastic per- 
sons in his dominion from 63,000 to 27,000. Attempting too 
much, he brought down upon his head the wrath of both priest 
and noble and died a disappointed man. 

The Spanish reformers. A very similar result attended the 
reform efforts of a succession of benevolent rulers thrust upon 
Spain, during the eighteenth century, by the complications of for- 
eign poUtics. Over a period of nearly ninety years, extending 
from the accession of_Philip.V (1700) to the death of Charles III 
(1788), remarkable pohtical progress was imposed by a succession 
of able ministers and with the consent of the kings. The power 
of the Church, always the crying evil of Spain, was restricted in 
many ways; the Inquisition was curbed; the Jesuits were driven 
from the kingdom; the burning of heretics was stopped; prosecu- 
tion for heresy was reduced and discouraged; the monastic orders 
were taught to fear the law and curb their passions; evils in pubHc 
administration were removed ; national grievances were redressed ; 
the civil service was improved; science and literature were en- 
couraged, in place of barren theological speculations; and an ear- 
nest effort was made to regenerate the national life and improve 
the lot of the common people. 

All these reforms, though, were imposed from above, and no 
attempt was made to mtroduce schools or to educate the people 
in the arts of self-government. The result was that the reforms 
never went beneath the surface, and the national life of the peo- 
ple remained largely untouched. Within five years of the death 
of Charles III all had been lost. Under a native Spanish king, 
thoroughly orthodox, devout, and lacking in any broad national 
outlook, the Church easily restored itself to power, the priests 
resumed their earlier importance, the nobles again began to exact 
their full toll, free discussion was forbidden, scientific studies 
were abandoned, the universities were ordered to discontinue the 
study of moral philosophy, and the pohtical and social reforms 
which had required three generations to build up were lost in 
half a decade. Not meeting any well-expressed need of the peo- 
ple, and with no schools provided to show to the people the de- 
sirable nature of the reforms introduced, it was easy to sweep 
them aside. In this relapse to mediaevahsm, the chance for 



258 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Spain — a country rich in possibilities and natural resources — 
to evolve early into a progressive modern nation was lost. So 
Spain has remained ever since, and only in the last quarter of a 
century has reform from within begun to be evident in this until 
recently priest-ridden and benighted land. 

The intelligent despots of Russia. The greatest of these were 
Peter the Great, who ruled from 1689 to 1725, and Catherine II, 
who ruled from 1762 to 1796. Catching something of the new 
eighteenth-century western spirit, these rulers tried to introduce 
some western enlightenment into their as yet almost barbarous 
land. Each tried earnestly to lift their people to a higher level 
of living, and to start them on the road toward civilization and 
learning. By a series of edicts, despotically enforced, Peter tried 
to introduce the civilization of the western world into his country. 
He brought in numbers of skilled artisans, doctors, merchants, 
teachers, printers, and soldiers; introduced many western skills 
and trades; and made the beginnings of western secondary edu- 
cation for the governing classes by the estabhshment in the cities 
of a number of German-type gymnasia. Later Catherine II had 
the French philosopher Diderot (p. 278) draw up a plan for her 
for the organization of a state*system of higher schools, but the 
plan was never put into effect. The beginnings of Russian higher 
civilization really date from this eighteenth-century work. The 
power of the formidable Greek or Eastern Church remained, how- 
ever, untouched, and this continued, until after the Russian revo- 
lution of 191 7, as one of the most serious obstacles to Russian 
intellectual and educational progress. The serfs, too, remained 
serfs — tied to the land, ignorant, superstitious, and obedient. 

By the close of the eighteenth century Russia, largely under 
Prussian training, had become a very formidable mihtary power, 
and by the close of the nineteenth century was beginning to make 
some progress of importance in the arts of peace. Just at present 
Russia is going through a stage of national evolution quite com- 
parable to that which took place in France a century and a quar- 
ter ago, and the educational importance of this great people, as 
we shall point out further on, lies in their future evolution rather 
than in any contribution they have as yet made to western 
development. 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 259 



II. THE UNSATISFIED DEMAND FOR REFORM IN FRANCE 

The setting of eighteenth-century France. Eighteenth-century 
France, on the contrary, developed no benevolent despot to miti- 
gate abuses, reform the laws, abolish privileges, temper the rule 
of the Church (R. 247), curb the monastic orders, develop the 
natural resources, begin the establishment of schools, and allevi- 
ate the hard lot of the serf and the peasant. ''I am the State," 
exclaimed the king, Louis XIV, and the almost unlimited 
despotism of the King and his ministers and favorites fully sup- 
ported the statement. Local liberties had been suppressed, and 
the lot of the common people — ignorant, hard-working, down- 
trodden, but intensely patriotic — was wretched in the extreme. 
Approximately 140,000 nobles and 130,000 monks, nuns, and 
clergy owned two fifths of the landed property of France, and 
controlled the destinies of a nation of approximately 25,000,000 
people. 

Church and State were in close working alliance. The higher 
offices of the Church were commonly held by appointed noblemen, 
who drew large incomes, led w^orldly lives, and neglected their 
priestly functions much as the Itahan appointees in German 
lands had done before the Reformation. A king, constantly in 
need of money; an idle, selfish, corrupt, nobility and upper clergy, 
incapable of aiding the king, many of whom, too, had been influ- 
enced by the new philosophic and scientific thinking and were 
willing to help destroy their own orders; an aggressive, discon- 
tented, and patriotic bourgeoisie, full of new political and social 
ideas, and patriotically anxious to reform France; and a vast 
unorganized peasantry and city rabble, suffering much and 
resisting httle, but capable of a terrible fury and senseless 
destruction, once they were aroused and their suppressed rage 
let loose; — these were the main elements in the setting of 
eighteenth-century France. 

The French reform philosophers. During the middle decades 
of the eighteenth century a small but very influential group of 
reform philosophers in France attacked with their pens the an- 
cient abuses in Church and State, and did much to pave the way 
for genuine political and religious reform. In a series of widely 
read articles and books, characterized for the most part by clear 
reasoning and telhng arguments, these poHtical philosophers 
attacked the power of the absolute monarchy on the one hand, 



26o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and the existing privileges of the nobles and clergy on the other, 
as both unjust and inimical to the welfare of society (R. 248 ; 249) . 
The leaders in the reform movement were J\lpntesquieu (1689- 
1755), Turgot (1727-81), Voltaire (1694-1 778), Diderot (1713-84), 
and Rousseau (1712-78). 

A revolution in French thinking. These five men — Montes- 
quieu, Turgot, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau — and many 
other less influential followers, portrayed the abuses of the time 
in Church and State and pointed out the lines of poHtical and 
ecclesiastical reform. Those who read their writings understood 
better why the existing privileges of the nobility and clergy were 
no longer right, and the need for reform in matters of taxation 
and government. Their writings added to the spirit of unrest 
of the century, and were deeply influential, not only in France, 
but in the American Colonies as well. Though the attack was 
at first against the evils in Church and State, the new critical 
philosophy soon led to inteflectual developments of importance 
in many other directions. 

At the death of Louis XIV (17 15) France was intellectually 
prostrate. Great as was his long reign from the point of view of 
the splendor of his court, and large as was the quantity of Htera- 
ture produced, his age was nevertheless an age of misery, religious 
intolerance, political oppression, and intellectual decHne. It was 
a reign of centralized and highly personal government. Men no 
longer dared to think for themselves, or to discuss with any free- 
dom questions either of politics or religion. "There was no popu- 
lar liberty; there were no great men; there was no science; there 
was no Hterature; there were no arts. The largest intellects lost 
their energy; the national spirit died away." Between the death 
of Louis XIV and the outbreak of the French Revolution (1789) 
an intellectual revolution took place in France, and for this revo- 
lution English poKtical progress and political and scientific think- 
ing were largely responsible. 

Great English influence on France. In 17 15 the EngHsh lan- 
guage was almost unspoken in France, English science and poHt- 
ical progress were unknown there, and the EngHsh were looked 
down upon and hated. Half a century later English was spoken 
everywhere by the scholars of the time; the English were looked 
upon as the political and scientific leaders of Europe; and the 
scholars of France visited England to study English political, 
economic, and scientific progress. Locke, an uncompromising 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 



/% 



advocate of political and religious liberty; Hobbes, the specula- 
tive moral philosopher; and the great scientist Newton were the 
teachers of Voltaire. . More than any other single man, Voltaire 
moulded and redirected eighteenth-century thought in France. 
In the eighteenth century England became the school for poHtical 
liberty for France. 

The effect of the work of Isaac Newton (p. 208), as popularized 
by the writings of Voltaire, was revolutionary on a people who 
had been so tyrannized over by the clergy as had the French 
during the reign of Louis XIV. An interest in scientific studies 
before unknown in France now flamed up, and a new generation 
of French scientists arose. Physics, chemistry, zoology, and anat- 
omy received a great new impetus, while botany, geology, and 
mineralogy were raised to the rank of sciences. Popular scien- 
tific lectures became very common. The classics were almost 
abandoned for the new studies. Economic questions also began 
to be discussed, such as questions of money, food, finance, and 
government expenditure. 

In the meantime taxes piled up, reforms were refused, the 
power and arrogance of the clergy and nobility showed no signs 
of diminution, the nation was burdened with debt, commerce and 
agriculture declined, the lot of the common people became ever 
more hard to bear, and the masses grew increasingly resentful 
and rebellious. As national affairs continued to drift from bad 
to worse in France, a series of important happenings on the 
American continent helped to bring matters more rapidly to a 
crisis. Before describing these events, however, we wish to 
sketch briefly the rise of government by the people and the ex- 
tension of liberalism in England — the first great democratic na- 
tion of the western world. 

III. ENGLAND THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC NATION 

Early beginnings of English liberty. The first western nation 
created from the wreck of the Roman Empire to achieve a meas- 
urement of self-government was England. Better civilized than 
most of the other wandering tribes, at the time of their coming 
to EngHsh shores, the invading Angles, Saxons, and Jutes early 
accepted Christianity (597-635 a.d.) and settled down to an agri- 
cultural Kfe. On EngHsh shores they soon built up a for- the- time 
substantial civihzation. This was later largely destroyed by the 
pillaging Danes, but with characteristic energy the English set to 



262 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

work to assimilate the newcomers and build up civilization anew. 
The work of Alfred in reestabKshing law and order, at a time 
when law and order scarcely existed anywhere in western Europe, 
will long remain famous. Later on, and at a time when German 
and Hun and Slav had only recently accepted Christianity in 
name and had begun to settle down into rude tribal govern- 
ments, and when the Prussians in their original home along the 
eastern Baltic were still offering human sacrifices to their heathen 
gods, the English barons were extorting Magna Charta from 
King John and laying the firm foundations of English constitu- 
tional liberty. In the meadow at Runnymede, on that justly 
celebrated June day, in 121 5, government under law and based 
on the consent of the governed began to shape itself once more 
in the western world. Of the sixty-three articles of this Charter 
of Liberties, three possess imperishable value. These provided : 

1. That no free man shall be imprisoned or proceeded against except 
by his peers, or the law of the land, which secured trial by jury. 

2. That justice should neither be sold, denied, nor delayed. 

3. That dues from the people to the king could be imposed only with 
the consent of the National Council (after 1 246 known as Parlia- 
ment). 

So important was this charter to such a liberty-loving people as 
the English have always been, and so bitterly did kings resent its 
hampering provisions, that within the next two centuries kings 
had been forced to confirm it no less than thirty-seven times. 

By 1295 the first complete Parliament, representative of the 
three orders of society — Lords, Clergy, and Commons — assem- 
bled, and in 1333 the Commons gained the right to sit by itself. 
From that time to the present the Commons, representing the 
people, has gradually broadened its powers, working, as Tenny- 
son has said, ''from precedent to precedent," until to-day it rules 
the EngHsh nation. In 1376 the Commons gained the right to 
impeach the King's ministers, and in 1407 the exclusive right to 
make grants of money for any governmental purpose. Centuries 
ahead of other nations, this insured an almost continual meeting 
of the national assembly and a close scrutiny of the acts of both 
kings and ministers. 

In 1604 King James I, imitating continental European prece- 
dents, proclaimed his theory as to the "divine right of kings" to 
rule, and a struggle at once set in which carried the English into 
Civil War (1642-49); led to the beheading of Charles I (1649); 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 263 

the overthrow and banishment of James II (1688); and the ulti- 
mate firm estabHshment, instead, of the ''divine right of the 
common people." In an age when the autocratic power and the 
divine right of kings to rule was almost unquestioned elsewhere 
in Europe, the English people compelled their king to recognize 
that he could rule over them only when he ruled in their interests 
and as they wished him to do. Though there was a period of 
struggle later on with the German Georges (I, II, and III), and 
especially with the honest but stupid George III, England has, 
since 1688, been a government of and by the people. France 
did not rid itself of the ''divine-right " conception until the French 
Revolution (1789), and Germany, Austria, and Russia not until 
1918. 

Growth of tolerance among the English. The results of the 
long struggle of the Enghsh for hberty under law showed itself 
In many ways in the growth of tolerance among the people of the 
English nation. At a time when other nations were bound down 
in bhnd obedience to king and priest, and when dissenting minori- 
ties were driven from the land, the English people had become 
accustomed to the idea of individual liberty, regulated by law, 
and to the toleration of opinions with which they did not agree! 
These characteristically English conceptions of hberty under law 
and of the toleration of minorities have found expression in many 
important ways in the life and government of the people (R. 250), 
and have been elements of great strength in England's colonial 
policy. One of the important ways in which this growth of toler- 
ance among the English showed itself was in the extension of a 
larger freedom to those unable to subscribe to the state religion. 
Though the Reformation movement had stirred up bitter 
hatreds in England, as on the Continent, the English were among 
the first of European peoples to show tolerance of opposition in 
religious matters. The high English State Church, which had 
succeeded the Roman, had made but small appeal to many Eng- 
hshmen The Puritans had early struggled to secure a simplifi- 
cation of the church service and the introduction of more preach- 
ing (p. 192), and in the seventeenth century the organization of 
three additional dissenting sects, which became known as Unitari- 
ans Baptists, and Quakers, took place. These sects divided off 
rather quietly, and their separation resulted only in the enact- 
ment of new laws regarding conformity, prayers, and teaching. 
During the latter half of the seventeenth century, after the 



264 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

execution of Charles I (1649), the Puritans had temporarily risen 
to power, and during their control of affairs had imposed their 
strict Calvinistic standards as to Sabbath observance and piety 
on the nation. This was very distasteful to many, and from such 
strict observances the people in time rebelled. The standards 
of the English in personal morahty, temperance, amusements, 
and manners at the beginning of the eighteenth century were not 
especially high, and in the reaction from Puritan control and 
strict religious observances the great mass of the people degen- 
erated into positive irreligion and gross immorality. Drunken- 
ness, rowdyism, robbery, blasphemy, brutahty, lewdness, and 
prostitution became very common. This moral decline of the 
people the Church of England seemed powerless to arrest. 

New emancipating and educative influences. In 1662 the first 
regular newspaper outside of Italy was established in England, 
and in 1702 the first daily paper. Small in size, printed on 
but one side of the sheet, and dealing wholly with local matters, 
these nevertheless marked the beginnings of that daily expression 
of popular opinion with which we are now so familiar. After 
about 1705 the cheap poKtical pamphlet made its appearance, 
and after 17 10, instead of merely communicating news, the papers 
began the discussion of political questions. 

By 1735 a revolution had been effected in England, and papers 
and presses began to be estabHshed in the chief cities and towns 
outside of London; the freedom of the press was in a large way 
completed, and newspapers, for the first time in the history of the 
world, were made the exponents of pubhc opinion. The press in 
England in consequence became an educative force of great intel- 
lectual and political importance, and did much to compensate 
for the lack of a general system of schools for the people. In 1772 
the right to pubhsh the debates in ParHament was finally won, 
over the strenuous objections of George III. In 1780 the first 
Sunday newspaper appeared, *'on the only day the lower orders 
had time to read a paper at all," and, despite the efforts of reli- 
gious bodies to suppress it, the Sunday paper has continued to 
the present and has contributed its quota to the education and 
enlightenment of mankind. In 1785 the famous London Times 
began to appear In the middle of the eighteenth century de- 
bating societies for the consideration of public questions arose, 
and in 1769 ''the first pubHc meeting ever assembled in England, 
in which it was attempted to enlighten Englishmen respecting 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 265 

their political rights" was held, and such meetings soon became 
of almost daily occurrence. All these influences stimulated polit- 
ical thinking to a high degree, and contributed not only to a 
desire for still larger political freedom but for the more general 
diffusion of the ability to read as well (R. 250). 

Still other important new influences arose during the early part 
of the eighteenth century, each of which tended to awaken new 
desires for schools and learning. In 1678 the first modern printed 
story to appeal to the masses, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, ap- 
peared from the press. Written, as it had been, by a man of the 
people, its simple narrative form, its passionate religious feeling, 
its picture of the journey of a pilgrim through a world of sin and 
temptadon and trial, and its Biblical language with which the 
common people had now become familiar — all these elements 
combined to make it a book that appealed strongly to all who 
read or heard it read, and stimulated among the masses a desire 
to read comparable to that awakened by the chaining of the 
English Bible in the churches a century before (R. 170). In 17 19 
the first great English novel, Defoe's Rahmsoii Crusoe, and in 
1726 Gullivers Travels, added new stimulus to the desires awak- 
ened by Bunyan's book. All three were books of the common 
people, whereas the dramas, plays, essays, and scholarly works 
previously produced had appealed only to a small educated class. 
In 1 75 1 what was probably the first circulating library of modern 
times was opened at Birmingham, and soon thereafter similar 
institutions were estabhshed in other English cities. 

Science and manufacturing; the new era. England, too, from 
the first, showed an interest in and a tolerance toward the new 
scientific thinking scarcely found in any other land. This in 
itself is indicative of the great intellectual progress which the 
English people had by this time made. At a time when Galileo, 
in Italy (p. 208), was fighting, almost alone, for the right to think 
along the lines of the new scientific method and being imprisoned 
for his pains, Enghshmen were reading with deep interest the 
epoch-making scientific writings of Lord Francis Bacon (p. 209). 
Earher than in other lands, too, the Newtonian philosophy 
found a place in the instruction of the national universities. 
Popular presentations of what had been worked out by the 
scientists were sold at the book stalls and by peddlers and were 
eagerly read; by the beginning of the reign of George III (1760) 
they had become very common. In 1704-10 the first "Diction- 



266 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ary of Arts and Sciences" was printed, and in 1668-71 the first 
edition (three volumes) of the now famous Encydopcedia Brilan- 
nica appeared. In 1755 the famous British Museum was founded. 

As early as 1698 a rude form of steam engine had been patented 
in England, and by 17 12 this had been perfected sufficiently to be 
used in pumping water from the coal mines. In 1765 James Watt 
made the real beginning of the application of steam to industry 
by patenting his steam engine; in 1760 Wedgwood estabUshed the 
pottery industry in England; in 1767 Hargreaves devised the 
spinning- jenny, which banished the spindle and distaff and the 
old spinning-wheel; in 1769 Arkwright evolved his spinning- 
frame; and in 1785 Cartwright completed the process by invent- 
ing the power loom for weaving. In 1784 a great improvement 
in the smelting of iron ores (puddling) was worked out. These 
inventions, all EngHsh, were revolutionary in their effect on man- 
ufacturing. They meant the displacement of hand power by 
machine labor, the breakdown of home industry through the 
concentration of labor in factories, the rise of great manufacturing 
cities, and the ultimate collapse of the age-old apprenticeship 
system of training, where the master workman with a few appren- 
tices in his shop (p. 109) prepared goods for sale. They also 
meant the ultimate transformation of England from an agricul- 
tural into a great manufacturing and exporting nation, whose 
manufactured products would be sold in every corner of the 
globe. 

By 1750 a change in attitude toward all the old intellectual 
problems had become marked in England, and by 1775 attention 
before unknown was being given there to social, political, eco- 
nomic, and educational questions. Rel-igious intolerance was 
dying out, the harsh laws of earlier days had begun to be modified, 
new social and poHtical interests were everywhere attracting 
attention, and the great commercial expansion of England was 
rapidly taking shape. With England and France leading in the 
new scientific studies; England in the van in the development of 
manufacturing and the French to the fore in social influences 
and polite literature; England and the new American Colonies 
setting new standards in government by the people; the French 
theorists and economists giving the world new ideas as to the 
function of the State; enlightened despots on the thrones of Prus- 
sia, Austria, Spain, and Russia; and the hatreds of the hundred 
years of religious warfare dying out; the world seemed to many, 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 267 

about 1775, as on the verge of some great and far-reaching change 
in methods of living and in government, and about ready to enter 
a new era and make rapid advances in nearly all hnes of human 
activity. The change came, but not in quite the manner expected. 

I\^ INSTITUTION OF CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT AND 
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM IN AMERICA 

Englishmen in America establish a Republic. Though the 
early settlement of America, as was pointed out in chapter xv, 
was made from among those people and from those lands which 
had embraced some form of the Protestant faith, and represented 
a number of nationalities and several religious sects, the thirteen 
colonies, nevertheless, were essentially English in origin, speech, 
habits, observances, and pohtical and rehgious conceptions. It 
was from England, the nation which had done most in the devel- 
opment of individual and religious Hberty, that the great bulk of 
the early settlers of America came, and in the New World the 
EngUsh traditions as to constitutional government and liberty 
under law were early and firmly established. The centuries of 
struggle for representative government in England at once bore 
fruit here. Colony charters, charters of rights and Kberties, public 
discussion, legislative assemblies, and liberty under law were from 
the first made the foundation stones upon which self-government 
in America was built up. 

From an early date the American Colonies showed an independ- 
ence to which even EngHshmen were scarcely accustomed, and 
when the home government attempted to make the colonists pay 
some of the expenses of the Seven Years' War, and a larger share 
of the expenses of colonial administration, there was determined 
opposition. Having no representation in Parliament and no 
voice in levying the tax, the colonists declared that taxation with- 
out representation was tyranny, and refused to pay the taxes 
assessed. Standing squarely on their rights as Englishmen, the 
colonists were gradually forced into open rebellion. In 1765, and 
again in 1774, Declarations of Rights were drawn up and adopted 
by representatives from the Colonies, and were forwarded to the 
King. In 1774 the first Continental Congress met and formed a 
union of the Colonies; in 1776 the Colonies declared their inde- 
pendence. This was confirmed, in 1783, by the Treaty of Paris; 
in 1787, the Constitution of the United States was drafted; and 
in 1789, the American government began. In the preamble to 



268 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the twenty-seven charges of tyranny and oppression made against 
the King in the Declaration of Independence, we find a statement 
of political philosophy which is a combination of the results of 
the long English struggle for liberty and the French eighteenth- 
century reform philosophy and revolutionary demands. This 
preamble declared: 

We hold these truths to be self-evident — that all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- 
able rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. That, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among 
men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, 
whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, 
it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a 
new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organiz- 
ing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect 
their safety and happiness. 

American contributions to world history. The American 
Revolution and its results were fraught with great importance for 
the future political and educational progress of mankind. Before 
the close of the eighteenth century the new American government 
had made at least four important contributions to world liberty 
and progress which were certain to be of large pohtical and educa- 
tional value for the future. 

In the first place, the people of the Colonies had erected inde- 
pendent governments and had shown the possibility of the self- 
government of peoples on a large scale, and not merely in little 
city-states or communities, as had previously been the case where 
self-government had been tried. Democratic government was 
here worked out and applied to large areas, and to peoples of 
diverse nationalities and embracing different reHgious faiths. 
The possibility of States selecting their rulers and successfully 
governing themselves was demonstrated. 

In the second place, the new American government which was 
formed did something new in world history when it united thir- 
teen independent and autonomous States into a single federated 
Nation, and without destroying the independence of the States. 
What was formed was not a league, or confederacy, as had existed 
at different times among differing groups of the Greek City- 
States, and from time to time in the case of later Swiss and tem- 
porary European national groupings, but the union into a sub- 
stantial and permanent Federal State of a number of separate 
States which still retained their independence, and with provi- 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 269 

sion for the expansion of this national Union by the addition of 
new States. This federal principle in government is probably 
the greatest poHtical contribution of the American Union to world 
development. In the twentieth-century conception of a League 
of Nations it has borne still further fruit. 

In the third place, the different American States changed their 
old Colonial Charters into definite written Constitutions, each 
of which contained a Preamble or Bill of Rights which affirmed 
the fundamental principles of democratic hberty (R. 251). These 
now became the fundamental law for each of the separate States, 
and the same idea was later worked out in the Constitution of 
the United States. These were the first written constitutions of 
history, and have since served as a type for the creation of con- 
stitutional government throughout the world. In such docu- 
ments to-day free peoples everywhere define the rights and duties 
and obligations which they regard as necessary to their safety 
and happiness and welfare. 

Finally,^ new Federal Constitution provided for the inesti- 
mable boon of rehgious Hberty, and in a way that was both revo- 
lutionary and wholesome. The complex religious problem of 
America had to be met by the Constitutional Convention, and 
this body handled it in the only way it could have been intelli- 
gently handled in a nation composed of so many different reli- 
gious sects as was ours. It simply incorporated into the Federal 
Constitution provisions which guaranteed the free exercise of 
their religious faith to all, and forbade the establishment by Con- 
gress of any state religion, or the requirement of any religious 
test as a prerequisite to holding any office under the control of 
the Federal Government. The American people thus took a 
stand for^ religious Hberty at a time when the hatreds of the 
Reformation still burned fiercely, and when tolerance in religious 
matters was as yet but Httle known. 

Importance of the religious-Hberty contribution. The solution 
of the rehgious question arrived at was only second in importance 
for us to the establishment of the Federal Union, and the far- 
reaching significance to our future national life of the sane and 
for-the-time extraordinary provisions incorporated into our Na- 
tional Constitution can hardly be overestimated. This action 
led to the early abandonment of state religions, religious tests, and 
pubHc taxation for religion in the old States, and to the prohibi- 
tion of these in the new. The importance of this solution of the 



270 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

religious question for the future of popular education in the 
United States was great, for it laid the foundations upon which 
our systems of free, common, public, tax-supported, non-sectarian 
schools have since been built up. How we could have erected a 
common public- school system on a religious basis, with the many 
religious sects among us, it is impossible to conceive. 

How much the American people owe to the Fathers of the Re- 
pubHc for this most enlightened and intelligent provision, few 
who have not thought carefully on the matter can appreciate. To 
it we must trace not only the great blessing of religious liberty, 
which we have so long enjoyed, but also the final estabHshment of 
our common, free, pubHc-school systems. The beginning of the 
new state motive for education, which was soon to supersede the 
reHgious motive, dates from the estabUshment with us of republi- 
can governments; and the beginning of the emancipation of edu- 
cation from church domination goes back to this wise provision 
inserted in our National Constitution. 

This national attitude was later copied in the state constitu- 
tions, and as a preamble to practically all we find a Bill of Rights, 
which in almost every case included a provision for freedom of 
religious worship (Rs. 251, 260). After the middle of the nine- 
teenth century a further provision prohibiting sectarian teaching 
or state aid to sectarian schools was everywhere added. 

V. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION SWEEPS AWAY ANCIENT ABUSES 
New demands for reform that could not be resisted. More 
than in any other continental European country France had, by 
1783, become a united nation, conscious of a modern national 
feeUng. Yet in France mediaeval abuses in both State and 
Church had survived, as we have seen, to as great an extent al- 
most as in any European nation. So determined were the clergy 
and nobihty to retain their old powers, not only in France but 
throughout the continent of Europe as well, that progressive re- 
form seemed well-nigh impossible. The work of the benevolent 
despots had, after all, been superficial. By the last quarter of the 
eighteenth, though, a progressive change was under way which 
was certain to produce either evolution or revolution. The influ- 
ence of the American experiment in nation-building now became 
pronounced. In 1779 Franklin took a copy of the new Pennsyl- 
vania Constitution with him to Paris, and in 1 780 John Adams did 
the same with the Massachusetts Constitution. Frenchmen in- 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 271 

stantly recognized here, in concrete form, the ideas with which 
their own heads were filled. In 1 783 Frankhn published in France 
a French translation of all the American Constitutions, and the 
National Constitution of 1787 was as eagerly read and discussed 
in Paris as in New York or Philadelphia or Boston. America 
appeared to the French of that stormy period as an ideal land, 
where the dreams of Rousseau about the social contract had been 
transformed into reahties. Two years later the cahiers of the 
Third Estate demanded a written constitution for France. The 
French, too, had aided the American Colonies in their struggle 
for liberty, and French soldiers returning home carried back new 
political ideas drawn from the remarkable political progress of the 
new American Nation. By 1 788 the demand for reform in France 
had become so insistent, and the condition of the treasury of the 
State was so bad, that it was finally felt necessary to summon a 
meeting of the States-General — a sort of national parliament 
consisting of representatives of the three great Estates: clergy, 
nobihty, and commons — which had not met in France since 
1614. 

France establishes constitutional government. The States- 
General met May 5, 1789, and soon (June 20) resolved itself into 
the National or Constituent Assembly. Terrified by the upris- 
ings and burnings of chateaux throughout France, on the night of 
August fourth, in a few hours, it adopted a series of decrees which 
virtually abolished the Ancien Regime of privileges for France. 
The nobility gave up most of their old rights, the serfs were 
freed, and the special privileges of towns were surrendered. Later 
the Assembly adopted a "Declaration of Rights of Man and of 
the Citizen" (R. 253), much like the American Declaration of In- 
dependence. This declared, among other things, that all men 
were born free and have equal rights, that taxes should be propor- 
tional to wealth, that all citizens were equal before the law and 
have a right to help make the laws, and that the people of the na- 
tion were sovereign. These principles struck at the very founda- 
tions of the old system. 

Soon a Constitution for France, the first ever promulgated in 
modern Europe, was prepared and adopted (1791). This abol- 
ished the ancient privileges and reorganized France as a self-gov- 
erning nation, much after the American plan. Local government 
was created, and the absolute monarchy was changed to a limited 
constitutional one. Next the property of the Church was taken 



272 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

over by the State, the monasteries were suppressed, and the 
priests and bishops were made state officials and paid a fixed state 
salary. The Jesuits had been expelled from France in 1764; and 
in 1792 the Brothers of the Christian Schools were not allowed 
longer to teach. Among other important matters, the Constitu- 
tion of 1 79 1 declared that: 

There shall be created and organized a system of public instruction 
common to all citizens, and gratuitous, with respect to those branches 
of instruction which are indispensable for all men. 

Up to this point the Revolution in France had proceeded rela- 
tively peacefully, considering the nature of the long-standing 
abuses which were to be remedied. In August, 1792, the King 
was imprisoned, and in January, 1793, he was executed and a Re- 
pubhc proclaimed. Then followed a reign of terror, which we do 
not need to follow, and which ended only when Napoleon became 
master of France. 

Beneficent results of the Revolution. The French Revolution 
was not an accident or a product of chance, but rather the inevita- 
ble result of an attempt to dam up the stream of human progress 
and prevent its orderly onward flow. The Protestant Revolts 
were the first great revolutionary wave, the Puritan revolution in 
England was another, the formation of the American Republic 
and the institution of constitutional government and religious 
freedom another, while the French Revolution brought the rising 
movement to a head and swept away, in a deluge of blood, the 
very foundations of the mediaeval system. Along with much that 
was disastrous, the French Revolution accomplished after all 
much that was of greatest importance for human progress. The 
world at times seems to be in need of such a great catharsis. 
Progress was made in a decade that could hardly have been made 
in a century by peaceful evolution. The old order of privilege 
came to an end, meditevahsm was swept away, and the serf was 
evolved into the free farmer and citizen. One fifth of the soil of 
France was restored to the use of the people from the monaster- 
ies, and an additional one third from the Church and nobihty. 
The new principles of citizenship — Liberty, EquaUty, and Fra- 
ternity — were for France revolutionary in the extreme, while the 
assertion that the sovereignty of a nation rests with the people 
rather than with the king, here successfully promulgated, ended 
for all time the ''divine-right-of -kings" idea for France. After 
political theory had for a time run mad, the organizing genius of 



EIGHTEENTH A TRANSITION CENTURY 273 

Napoleon consolidated the gains, gave France a strong govern- 
ment, a uniform code of Jaws, and began that organization of 
schools for the nation which ultimately meant the taking over of 
education from the Church and its provision at the expense of and 
in the interests of the nation. 

The national idea extends to other lands. The reform work in 
France, together with the examples of English and American lib- 
erty, soon began to have their influence in other lands as well. 
People everywhere began to see that the old regime of privilege 
and misgovemment ought to be replaced. Other countries abol- 
ished serfdom, introduced better laws, and made reforms in the 
abuses of both Church and State. French armies and rulers car- 
ried the best of French ideas to other lands, and, where the French 
rule continued long enough, these ideas became fixed. In particu- 
lar was the Code Napoleon copied in the Netherlands, the Italian 
States, and the States of southern and western Germany. The 
national spirit of Italy was awakened, and the Italian liberals be- 
gan to look forward to the day when the small Italian States might 
be reunited into an ItaHan Nation, with Rome as its capital. This 
became the work of nineteenth-century Itahan statesmen. For 
the first time in Spanish history, too, the people became conscious, 
under French occupation, of a feeling of national unity, and simi- 
larly the national spirit of German lands was stirred by the con- 
quests of Napoleon. 

Important consequences of the democratic movement. Since 
the closing decades of the eighteenth century, when democratic 
government and written constitutions began, the sweep of demo- 
cratic government has become almost world wide. Nation after 
nation has changed to democratic and constitutional forms of 
government, the latest additions being Portugal (191 1), China 
(19 1 2), Russia (191 7), and Germany (19 18). New English colo- 
nies, too, have carried English self-government into almost every 
continent. The World War of 19 14-18 gave a new emphasis to 
democracy, and there is good reason to believe that government 
of and by and"Tor"ThF~people is ultimately de&tined to prevail 
among all the intelligent nations and races of the earth. 

With the development of democratic government there has 
everywhere been a softening of old laws, the growth of humani- 
tarianism, the wider and wider extension of the suffrage, impor- 
tant legislation as to labor, a previously unknown attention to the 
poor and the dependents of society, a vast extension of educa- 



274 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

tional advantages, and the taking over of education from the 
Church by the State and the erection of the school into an im- 
portant institution for the preservation and advancement of the 
national welfare. These consequences of the onward sweep of 
new-world ideas we shall trace more in detail in the chapters 
which follow. 

^ QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Show the importance, for human progress, of each of the meanings of the 
' new eighteenth-centurv liberahsm, as enumerated on pages 253-54. 

2. How do you explain the lack of any permanent influence on Spanish life 
of the work of the benevolent despots in Spain? 

3 Show the liberalizing influence of the rise of scientific mvestigation and 
" economic studies, for a nation still oppressed by mediaevalism and bad 

government. 1 • 1 

4 Enumerate the new sciences which arose m the eighteenth century. 

5. Indicate the importance of the freedom of the press in the development 
of English political hberty. ■ r 1 a • • 1 

6 Explain how the rehgious-freedom attitude of the American national 
constitution conferred an inestimable boon on the States in the matter 
of pubhc education. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following illustrative selections 
are reproduced: 

247. Dabney: Ecclesiastical Tyranny in France. 

248. Voltaire: On the Relation of Church and State. 

249. Rousseau: Extract from the Social Contract. 

250. Buckle: Changes in Enghsh Thinking in the Eighteenth Century. 

251. Pennsylvania Constitution: Bill of Rights in. 

252. Clergy of Blois: Cahier of i779- 

253. France: Declaration of the Rights of Man. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

♦Dabney, R. H. The Causes of the French Revolution. 
Taine,'H. A. The Ancient Regime. 



CHAPTER XX 
THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 
I. NEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PURPOSE 

The State as servant of the Church. With the rise of the Prot- 
estant sects we noted, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and 
for the first time since Christianity became supreme in the west- 
ern world, the beginnings of a state connection with the education 
of the young. The Protestant reformers, obtaining the support 
of the Protestant princes and kings, had successfully used this 
support to assist them in the organization of church schools as an 
aid to the reformed faith. In all Protestant lands we saw that 
the reformers appealed, from time to time, to what were then 
the servants of the churches — the rising civil governments and 
principaHties and States — to use their civil authority to force 
the people to meet their new religious obligations in the matter 
of schooling. 

The purpose of the schooHng ordered established, however, was 
almost wholly religious. Massachusetts, in ordering instruction 
in the "capital laws of the country," as well as reading and re- 
ligion, had formed a marked exception. In nearly all lands the 
rising state governments merely helped the Protestant churches 
to create the elementary vernacular religious school, and to make 
of it an auxihary for the protection of orthodoxy and the advance- 
ment of the faith. This condition continued until well toward 
the middle of the eighteenth century. 

The new state theory of education. After about the middle of 
the eighteenth century a new theory as to the purpose of educa- 
tion, and one destined to make rapid headway, began to be ad- 
vanced. This theory had already made m.arked progress, as we 
shall see, in the New England Colonies, and had also found ex- 
pression, as we shall also see in a later chapter, in the organizing 
work of Frederick the Great in Prussia. It was from the French 
poKtical philosophers of the eighteenth century, though, thaTits 
clearest definition came. They now advanced the idea that 
schools were essentially civil affairs, the purpose of which should 
be to promote the everyday interests of society and the welfare of 
the State, rather than the welfare of the Church, and to prepare 
for a life here rather than a life hereafter. 



276 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The outcome was the rise of a new national and individual con- 
ception of the educational purpose. This was destined in time to 
spread to other lands and to lead to the rise of complete state 
school systems, financed and managed by the State and conducted 
for state ends, and to the ultimate divorce of Church and State, in 
all progressive lands, in the matter of the education of the young. 
Teachers trained and certificated by the State were in time to 
supplant the nuns and brothers of the religious congregations in 
Cathohc lands, as well as teachers who served as assistants to the 
pastors in Protestant lands and whose chief purpose was to up- 
hold the teachings and advance the interests of the sect; citizens 
were to supplant the ecclesiastic in the supervision of instruction; 
and the courses of instruction were to be changed in direction and 
vastly broadened in scope to make them minister to the needs of 
the State rather than the Church, and to prepare pupils for useful 
life here rather than for life in another world 

II. THE NEW STATE THEORY IN FRANCE 

The French political theorists. The leading French political 
theorists of the two decades between 1760 
and 1780 now began to discuss education 
as in theory a civil affair, intimately con- 
nected with the promotion of the welfare 
of the State. The more important of 
these, and their chief ideas were: 

I . Rousseau. The first of the critical and 
reformatory pedagogical writers to awaken 
any large interest and obtain a general 
hearing was Jean- Jacques Rousseau. The 
same year (1762) that his Social Con- 
^^^' ^(^^^-^i^^'^ ^^^^^ appeared and attacked the founda- 
tions of the old political system his Emile 
also appeared and attacked with equal vigor the religious and 
social theory as to education then prevailing throughout western 
Europe. For the stiff and unnatural methods in education, under 
which children were dressed and made to behave as adults, the 
harsh discipHne of the time, and the excessive emphasis on religious 
instruction and book education, he preached the substitution of 
Hfe amid nature, childish ways and sports, parental love, and an 
education that considered the instincts and natural development 
of children. 




BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 



277 




Gathering up the political and social ideas of his age as to ec- 
clesiastical and political despotism; the nature of the social con- 
tract; that the '' state of nature " was the ideal one, and the one in 
which men had been intended to live; that human duty called for 
a return to the ''state of nature," whatever that might be; 
and that the artificiality and hypocrisy of his age in manners, 
dress, religion, and education were all wrong — Rousseau re- 
stated his political philosophy in terms of the education of 
the boy, Emile. Despite its many exagger- 
ations, much faulty reasoning, and many 
imperfections, the book had a tremendous 
influence upon Europe in laying bare the 
limitations and defects and abuses of the 
formal and ecclesiastical education of the 
time. He may be regarded as the first im- 
portant writer to sap the foundations of 
the old system of religious education, and 
to lay a basis for a new type of child 
training (R. 254). 

2. LaChalotais. The year following the 
pubhcation of Rousseau's Emile appeared 
La Chalotais's Essai d'education naiionale 
(1763). La Chalotais produced a practical and philosophical dis- 
cussion of the problem of the education of a people. Declaring 
firmly that education was essentially a civil afiair; that it was 

the function of government to make 
citizens contented by educating them 
for their sphere in society; that citizen 
and secular teachers should not be ex- 
cluded for celibates; that the real pur- 
pose of education should be to prepare 
citizens for France; that the poor were 
deserving of education; and that ''the 
most enlightened people will always have 
the advantage" in the struggles of a 
modern world. La Chalotais produced 
a work which was warmly approved 
by such political philosophers as Vol- 
taire, Diderot, and Turgot, and which 
was translated into several European languages (R. 255). 

3. Rolland. In 1768 Rolland, president of the Parliament of 



7>7 

Fig. 60. 
La Chalotais 

(1701-83) 



:;A^^^ 




Fig. 61. Rolland 

(1734-93) 



278 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Paris, presented to his colleagues a report in which he outlined a 
national system of education to replace both the schools of the 
Jesuits and those of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. La 
Chalotais had proposed a more modern system of state schools 
chiefly to replace those of the Jesuits, but RoUand went further 
and proposed the extension of education to all, and the supervi- 
sion of all schools by a central council of the Government. 

4. Turgot. In 1774 Turgot was appointed Minister of Finance 
(p. 260), and in 1775 he made a series of recommendations to the 
King in which he set forth ideas analogous to those of RoUand, 
and presented an eloquent plea for the formation of a national 
council of pubKc instruction and the estabKshment of a system of 
civil and national education for the whole of France. 

5. Diderot. In 1776 Diderot, editor with D'Alembert of the 
£;/cyc/o/?<^f/ia (1751-72), prepared, at the request of Catherine II 

(p. 258), under the title of Plan of a Uni- 
versity, a complete scheme for the organi- 
zation of a state system of public instruc- 
tion for Russia. Though the plan was 
never carried out, it was printed and much 
discussed in France, and is important as 
coming from one of the most influential 
Frenchmen. For Russia he outlines first 
a system of people's schools, which shall 
be free and obligatory for all, and in which 
instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, 
morals, civics, and rehgion shall be taught. 
"From the Prime Minister to the lowest 
peasant," he says, ''it is good for every one to know how to 
read, write, and count." For the series of secondary schools to 
be established, he condemns the usual practice of devoting so 
much of the instruction to the humanities and a mediaeval type 
of logic and ethics, and urges instead the introduction of instruc- 
tion in mathematics, in the modern sciences, literature, and the 
work of governments. Classical studies he would confine to the 
last years of the course. Science, history, drawing, and music 
find a place in his scheme. 

All this instruction Diderot would place under the supervisory 
control of an administrative bureau to be known as the University 
of Russia, at the head of which should be a statesman, who should 
exercise control of all the work of public instruction beneath. 




Fig. 62. Diderot 

(1713-84) 



BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 279 



Though never carried out in Russia, the University of France of 
1808 is largely an embodiment of the ideas he proposed in 1776. 

Legislative proposals to embody these ideas. During the quar- 
ter of a century between the publication of Rousseau's Entile and 
the summoning of the States-General to reform France (1762-88), 
the educational as well as the political ideas of the French reform- 
ers had taken deep root with the thinking classes of the nation. 
The cahiers of 1789, of all Orders (p. 271), gave evidence of this 
in their somewhat general demand for the creation of some form 
of an educational system for France (R. 252). From the first 
days of the Revolution pedagogical Kterature became plentiful, 
and the successive National Assemblies found time, amid the in- 
ternal reorganization of France, constitution-making, the trou- 
bles with and trial of the King, and the darkening cloud of foreign 
intervention, to listen to reports and addresses on education and 
to enact a bill for the organization of a national school system. 
The more important of these educational efforts were : 

I. The Constituent Assembly (June 17, 1789, to September 30, 
1 791). In the Constituent Assembly, into which the States-Gen- 
eral resolved itself, June 17, 1789, and 
which continued until after it had framed 
the constitution of 1791, two notable ad- 
dresses and one notable report on the 
organization of education were made. The 
Count de Mirabeau, a nobleman turned 
against his class and elected to the States- 
General as a representative of the Third 
Estate, made addresses on the '^ Organiza- 
tion of a Teaching Body," and on the 
"Organization of a National Lycee.^^ In the 
first he advocated the estabHshment of 
primary schools throughout France. In 
the second he proposed the establishment 
of colleges of literature in each depart- 
ment, with a National Lycee at Paris for higher (university) 
education, and to contain the essentials of a national normal 
school or teachers' college as well. 

Mirabeau 's proposals represent rather a transition in thinking 
from the old to the new, but the Report of Talleyrand (1791), 
former Bishop of Autun, now turned revolutionist, embodies the 
full culmination of revolutionary educational thought. Pub* 




Fig. 63. 

Count de Mirabeau 

(1749-91) 



28o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




Fig. 64. Talleyrand 
(1758-1838) 



lie instruction he termed "a, power which embraces everything, 
from the games of infancy to the most imposing fetes of the 
Nation." He definitely proposed the organization of a complete 
state system of public instruction for 
France, to consist of a primary school in 
every canton (community, district), open 
to the children of peasants and workmen 
— classes heretofore unprovided with edu- 
cation ; a secondary school in every depart- 
ment (county) ; a series of special schools 
in the chief French cities, to prepare for 
the professions; and a National Institute, 
or University, to be located at Paris. In- 
spired by Montesquieu's principle that 
"the laws of education ought to be rela- 
tive to the principles of government," 
Talleyrand proposed a bill designed to 
give effect to the provisions of the Con- 
stitution of 1 791 relating to education, and to provide an 
education for the people of France who were now to exercise, 
through elected representatives, the legislative power for France. 
Instruction he held to be the necessary counterpoise of Hberty, 
and every citizen was to be taught to know, obey, love, and 
protect the new constitution. PoHtical, social, and personal 
morality were to take the place of religion in the cantonal 
schools, which were to be free and equally open to all. As the 
Constituent Assembly was succeeded by the newly elected Legis- 
lative Assembly within three weeks after Talleyrand submitted 
his Report, no action was taken on his bill. 

2. The Legislative Assembly (October i, 1791, to September 21, 
1792). This new legislative body was far more radical in char- 
acter than its predecessor, and far more radical than was the 
sentiment of France at the time. Among other acts it abol- 
ished (1792) the old universities and confiscated (1793) their 
property to the State. To it was submitted (April 20-21, 1792) 
by the mathematician, philosopher, and revolutionist, Marquis 
de Condorcet, on behalf of the Committee on PubHc Instruction 
and as a measure of reconstruction, a Report and draft of a Law 
for the organization of a complete democratic system of pubHc 
instruction for France (R. 256). It provided for the organizing 
of a primary school for every four hundred inhabitants, in which 




Fig. 65. CoNDORCET 

(1743-94) 



BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 281 

-^eadi individual was ^'to be taught to direct his own conduct 
and to enjoy the plentitude of his own rights," and where 
principles would be taught, calculated to 
''insure the perpetuation of hberty and 

equality." The bill also provided, for the 

first time, for the organization of higher 

pximary schools in tHe~pnhcipal towns; 

colleges (secondary schools) in the chief 

cities (one for every four thousand inhab- 
itants); a higher school for each ''depart- 

nient"; Lycees, or institutions of still 

higher learning, at nine places in France; 

and a National Society of Sciences and 

Arts to crown the educational system at 

Paris. The national system of education he 

proposed was to be equally open to women, as well as men and 

to be gra tuitous throughout. Teachers for each grade of school 

were to be prepared in 
the school next above. 
Sunday lectures for 
workingmen and peas- 
ants were to be given 
by teachers everywhere. 
Public morahty, politi- 
cal intelhgence, human 
progress, and the pres- 
ervation of hberty and 
equahty were the aims 
of the instruction. The 
necessity for education 
in a constitutional gov- 
ernment he saw clearly. 
''A free constitution," 
he writes, "which should 
not be correspondent to 
the universal instruction 
of citizens, would come 
to destruction after a 




Fig. 66. The Institute of France 

Founded by Article 298 of the Constitution of 

Year III (1793) 



few conflicts, and would degenerate into one of those forms of 
government which cannot preserve the peace among an ignor- 
ant and corrupt people." Anarchy or despotism he held to be 



282 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the future for peoples who become free without being enlight- 
ened. The bill proposed by Condorcet, while too ambitious for 
the France of his day, was thoroughly sound as a democratic 
theory of education, and an accurate prediction of what the 
nineteenth century brought generally into existence. Condorcet's 
Report was discussed, but not acted upon. 

3. The National Convention (September 21, 1792, to October 
26, 1795). The Convention was also a radical body, deeply in- 
terested in the creation of a system of state schools for the people 
of France. To higher education there was for a time marked oppo- 
sition, though later in its history the Convention erected a number 
of important higher technical institutions and schools, among 
the most important of which was the Institute of France. There 
was also in the Convention marked opposition to all forms of 
clerical control of schools. The schools of the Brothers of the 
Christian Schools were suppressed by it, in 1792, and all secular 
and endowed schools and colleges were abolished and their prop- 
erty confiscated, in 1 793. The complete supremacy of the State in 
all educational matters was now asserted. Great enthusiasm was 
manifested for the organization of state primary schools, which 
were ordered estabHshed in 1793 (R. 258 a), and in these: 

Children of all classes were to receive that first education, physical, 
moral, and intellectual, the best adapted to develop in them republican 
manners, patriotism, and the love of labor, and to render them worthy 
of liberty and equality. 

The course of instruction was to include: ''to speak, read, and write 
correctly the French language; the geography of France; the rights and 
duties of men and citizens; the first notions of natural and familiar 
objects; the use of numbers, the compass, the level, the system of 
weights and measures, the mechanical powers, and the measurement of 
time. They are to be taken into the fields and the workshops where 
they may see agricultural and mechanical operations going on, ahd 
take part in the same so far as their age will allow." 

What a change from the course of instruction in the religious 
schools just preceding this period! 

A multiplicity of reports, bills, and decrees, often more or less 
contradictory but still embodying ideas advanced by Condorcet 
and Talleyrand, now appeared. Whereas the preceding legislative 
bodies had considered the subject carefully, but without taking 
action, the Convention now acted. The nation, though, was so 
engrossed by the internal chaos and foreign aggression that there 
was neither time nor funds to carry the decrees into effect. 



BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 283 

The most extreme proposal of the period was the bill of Lepelle- 
tier le Saint-Fargeau to create a national system of education 
modeled closely after that of ancient Sparta. The best of the pro- 
posals probably was the Lakanal^Law, of November 17, 1794, 
which ordered a school for every one thousand inhabitants, with 
special divisions for boys and girls, and which provided for in- 
struction in: 

1. Reading and writing the French language. 

2. The Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the Constitution. 

3. Lessons on republican morals. 

4. The rules of simple calculation and surveying. 

5. Lessons in geography and the phenom.ena of nature. 

6. Lessons on heroic actions, and songs of triumph. 

The law of October 25, 1795, closed the work of the Conven- 
tion. This made less important provisions for primary education 
(R. 258 b) than had preceding bills, but 
was the only permanent contribution of 
this period to the organization of primary 
schools. It placed greater emphasis than 
had the legislative Assembly on the crea- 
tion of secondary and higher institutions 
(R. 258 a), of more value to the bourgeois 
class. This bill of 1795 represents a reac- 
tion from the extreme republican ideas of 
a few years earlier, and the triumph of the 

conservative middle-class elements in the ^^^"^ ^^^^ ^*j 
nation over the radical republican ele- " /^ ^ 

ments previously in control. ^^^{T'^^'tif^^^^ 

The Convention also, in the latter part 
of its history, created -a number of higher technical institutions 
of importance, which were expressive alike of the French inter- 
est in scientific subjects which arose during the latter part of 
the eighteenth century, and of the new French military needs. 
Many of these institutions have persisted to the present, so well 
have they answered the scientific interests and needs of the na- 
tion. A mere Hst of the institutions created is. all that need be 
given. These were: 

Museum or Conservatory of Arts (Jan. 16, 1794). 
Conservatory of Arts and Trades (Oct. 10, 1794). 
New medical schools {Schools of Health) ordered (Dec. 4, 1794)- 
Museum of Natural History (Dec. 11, 1794). 




284 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Central Schools to succeed the former Colleges (secondary schools) 

(Feb. 25, 1795). 
School of Living Oriental Languages (March 30, 1795). 
Veterinary Schools (April 21, 1795). 
Course in Archaeology, National Library (June 8, 1795). 
Bureau of Longitude (June 29, 1795). 
Conservatory of Music (Aug. 3, 1795). 
The National Library (Oct. 17, 1795). 
Museum of Archaeological Monuments (Oct. 20, 1795). 
Polytechnic Schools (R. 257); School of Civil Engineering; School of 

Hydrographic Engineers; and School of Mining (Oct. 22, 1795). 

The Convention also adopted the metric system of weights and 
measures; enacted laws under which the peasants could acquire 
title to the lands they had tilled for so long; and began the unifica- 
tion of the laws of the different parts of the country into a single 
set, which later culminated in the Code Napoleon. 

4. The Directory (1795-99) and the Consulate (i 799-1804). 
The Revolution had by this time largely spent itself, the Direc- 
tory followed, and, in 1799 Napoleon became First Consul and for 
the next sixteen years was master of France. The Law of 1795 
for primary schools (R. 258 b) was but feebly administered under 
the Directory, as foreign wars absorbed the energies and re- 
sources of the Government. Napoleon's chief educational inter- 
est, too, was in opening up opportunities for talent to rise, in en- 
couraging scientific work and higher specialized institutions, and 
in developing schools of a type that would support the kind of 
government he had imposed upon France. The secondary and 
higher schools he estabhshed and promoted cost him money at a 
time when money was badly needed for national defense, and 
primary education was accordingly neglected during the time he 
directed the destinies of the nation. 

The Revolutionary enthusiasts had stated clearly their theory 
of repubHcan education, but had failed to establish a permanent 
state school system according to their plans. This now became 
the work of the nineteenth century. In the meantime, in the new 
United States of America the same ideas were taking shape and 
finding expression, and to the developments there we next turn. 

III. THE NEW STATE THEORY IN AMERICA 

Waning of the old religious interest. As early as 1647 Rhode 
Island Colony ha.d enacted the first law providing for freedom of 
religious worship ever enacted by an English-speaking people, 



BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 285 

and two years later Maryland enacted a similar law. Though the 
Maryland law was later repealed, and a rigid Church-of-England 
rule established there, these laws were indicative of the new spirit 
arising in the New World. By the beginning of the eighteenth 
century a change in attitude toward the old problem of personal 
salvation had become evident. Frontier conditions; the gradual 
rise of a civil as opposed to a religious form of town government; 
the rising interests in trade and shipping; the beginnings of the 
breakdown of the old aristocratic traditions and customs trans- 
planted from Europe; the rising individuahsm in both Europe 
and America — these all helped to weaken the hold on the people 
of the old religious doctrines. 

By 1750 the change in religious thinking in the American Colo- 
nies had become quite marked. The day of the monopoly of any 
sect in a Colony was over. New secular interests began to take 
the place of religion as the chief topic of thought and conversation, 
and secular books began to dispute the earlier predominance of the 
Bible. A few colonial newspapers had begun (seven by 1750), 
and these became expressive of the new colony interests. 

Changing character of the schools. These changes in attitude 
toward the old rehgious problems materially affected both the 
support and the character of the education provided in the Colo- 
nies. The Law of 1647, requiring the maintenance of the Latin 
grammar schools, had been found to be increasingly difficult of 
enforcement, not only in Massachusetts, but in all the other New 
England Colonies which had followed the Massachusetts exam- 
ple. With the changing attitude of the people, which had become 
clearly manifest by 1750, the demand for relief from the mainte- 
nance of this school in favor of a more practical and less aristo- 
cratic type of higher school, if higher school were needed at all, 
became marked. By the close of the colonial period the new 
American Academy (p. 248), with its more practical studies, had 
begun to supersede the old Latin grammar school. 

The elementary school experienced something of the same diffi- 
culties. Many of the parochial schools died out, while others de- 
clined in character and importance. In Church-of-England Colo- 
nies all elementary education was left to private initiative and 
philanthropic and religious effort (p. 241). In the southern Colo- 
nies the classes in society and the character of the plantation life 
made common schools impossible, and the feeling of any need for 
elementary schools almost entirely died out. In New England 



286 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the eighteenth century was a continual struggle on the one hand 
to prevent the original religious town school from disappearing, 
and on the other to establish in its place a series of scattered and 
inferior district schools, while either church or town support and 
tuition fees became ever harder to obtain. Among other changes 
of importance the reading school and the writing school now be- 
came definitely united, in all the smaller places and in the rural 
districts, as a measure of economy, to form the American school 
of the ''3 Rs." New textbooks, too, containing less of the gloom- 
ily religious than the New England Primer, and secular rather 
than religious in character (p. 235), appeared after 1750 and be- 
gan to be used in the schools. After 1750, too, it was increasingly 
evident that the old religious enthusiasm for schools had largely 
died out; that European traditions and ways and types of schools 
no longer completely satisfied; and that the period of the trans- 
planting of European educational ideas and schools and types of 
instruction was coming to an end. Instead, the evolution of a 
public or state school out of the original religious school, and the 
beginnings of the evolution of distinctly American types of 
schools, better adapted to American needs, became increasingly 
evident in the Colonies as the eighteenth century progressed. 

When our national government and the different state gov- 
ernments were estabhshed, the States were ready to accept, in 
principle at least, the theory gradually worked out in New Eng- 
land that schools are state institutions, and should be under the 
control of the State. 

Many of the older States enacted general state school laws 
early in their history (R. 262). Connecticut continued the gen- 
eral school laws of 1700, 171 2, and 17 14 unchanged, and in 1795 
added $1,200,000, derived from land sales, to a permanent state 
school endowment fund, created as early as 1750. Vermont en- 
acted a general school law in 1782. Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire enacted new general school laws, in 1789, which re- 
stated and legahzed the school development of the preceding hun- 
dred and fifty years. All these required the maintenance of 
schools by the towns for a definite term each year, ordered taxa- 
tion, and fixed the school studies required by the State. New 
York, in 1787, created an administrative organization, known as 
the University of the State of New York, to supervise secondary 
and higher education throughout the State — an institution 
clearly modeled after the centralizing ideas of Condorcet, Rol- 



BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 287 

land, and Diderot (p. 278), and very similar to the ideas proposed 
by Talleyrand and Condorcet and later (1808) embodied in the 
University of France by Napoleon. In 1795 New York also pro- 
vided for a state system of elementary education. Georgia cre- 
ated a state system of academies, as early as 1783. Delaware 
created a state school fund, in 1796, and Virginia enacted an op- 
tional school law the same year. North Carolina created a state 
university, as early as 1795. 

The new political motive for schools. We thus see, in the new 
United States, the theories of the French revolutionary thinkers 
and statesmen actually being real- 
ized in practice. The constitutional 
provisions, and even the legislation, 
often were in advance of what the 
States, impoverished as they were 
by the War of Independence, could 
at once carry out, but they mark 
the evolution in America of a clearly 
defined state theory as to educa- 
tion, and the recognition of a need 
for general education in a govern- 
ment whose actions were so largely 
influenced by the force of pubHc 
opinion. The Federal Constitution 
had extended the right to vote for 
national officers to all, and the older States soon began to remove 
their earlier property qualifications for voting and to extend gen- 
eral manhood sufi"rage to all citizens. 

This new development in government by the people, which 
meant the passing of the rule of a propertied and educated class 
and the establishment of a real democracy, caused the leading 
American statesmen to turn early to general education as a neces- 
sity for republican safety. In his Farewell Address to the Ameri- 
can people, written in 1796, Washington said: 

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for 
the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of 
a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public 
opinion should be enlightened. 




Fig. 68. Thomas Jefferson 
(1743-1826) 



Jefferson spent the years 1784 to 1789 in Paris, and became 
a great propagandist in America for French political ideas. 



2S8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Writing to James Madison from France, as early as 1787, he 
said : 

Above all things, I hope the education of the common people will 
be attended to ; convinced that on this good sense we may rely with the 
most security for the preservation of a due sense of liberty. 

In 1799, then, as a member of the Virginia legislature, Jefferson 
tried unsuccessfully to secure the passage of a comprehensive bill 
(R. 263), after the plan of the French Revolutionary proposals, 
for the organization of a complete system of public education for 
Virginia. 

Though the scheme failed of approval, Jefferson never lost in- 
terest in the education of the people for intelligent participation 
in the functions of government. Writing from Monticello to 
Colonel Yancey, in 18 16, after his retirement from the presidency, 
he wrote: 

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization it 
expects what never was and never will be. . . . There is no safe deposit 
(for the functions of government) but with the people themselves; 
nor can they be safe with them without information. 

In 1819 the founding of the University of Virginia crowned Jef- 
ferson's efforts for education by the State. This institution, 
the Declaration of Independence, and the statute for rehgious 
freedom in Virginia, stand to-day as the three enduring monu- 
ments to his memory. 

Other of the early American statesmen expressed similar views 
as to the importance of general education by the State. 

Having founded, as Lincoln so well said later at Gettysburg, 
"on this continent a new nation, conceived in Hberty, and dedi- 
cated to the proposition that all men are created equal," and hav- 
ing built a constitutional form of government based on that 
equality, it in time became evident to those who thought at all on 
the question that that liberty and poHtical equality could not be 
preserved without the general education of all. A new motive 
for education was thus created and gradually formulated in the 
United States, as well as in revolutionary France, and the nature 
of the school instruction of the youth of the State came in time to 
be colored through and through by this new pohtical motive. 
The necessary schools, though, did not come at once. On the 
contrary, the struggle to estabhsh these necessary schools it will 
be our purpose to trace in subsequent chapters, but before doing 



BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL EDUCATION 289 

so we wish first to point out how the rise of a political theory for 
education led to the development of a theory as to the nature 
of the educational process which exercised a far-reaching in- 
fluence on all subsequent evolution of schools and teaching. 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. What do the proposals of La Chalotais, Rolland, and Turgot indicate 
as to the degree of unification of France attained by the time they wrote? 

2. What new subjects did Diderot add to the religious elementary school 
of his time? 

3. Show how the decline in efficiency of the Jesuits was a stimulating force 
for the evolution of a system of public instruction in France. 

4. Show the statesman-like character of the proposals made in the legisla- 
tive assembHes of France for the organization of national education. 

5. Assuming that there had been peace, and funds to carry out the law 
(1793) of the Convention for primary instruction, what other difficulties 
would have been met that would have been hard to surmount? 

6. Compare the Lakanal school with an American elementary school of a 
half- century ago. 

7. Show that many of the important educational reforms of Napoleon were 
foreshadowed in the National Convention. 

8. Was Napoleon right in his attitude toward education and schools? 

9. Explain the lack of success of the revolutionary theorists in the estab- 
lishment of a state system of education. 

10. Explain why the breakdown of the old religious intolerance came earlier 
in the American Colonies than in the Old W^orld. 

11. Show the great value of the Laws of 1642 and 1647 in holding New Eng- 
land true to the maintenance of schools during the period of decline. 

12. What might have been the result in America had the New England Colo- 
nies established the school as a parish institution, as did the central 
Colonies? 

13. Analyze the Massachusetts constitutional provision for education, and 
show what it provided for. 

14. Show the similarity of the University of the State of New York to the 
proposals for governmental control in France. 

15. Explain why the French revolutionary ideas as to education were realized 
so easily in the new United States, whereas France did not realize them 
until well into the nineteenth century. 

16. Compare Jefferson's proposed law with the proposals of Talleyrand for 
France. 

17. Just what type of educational institutions did Washington have in mind 
in the quotation from his Farewell Address? John Jay? John Adams? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are repro- 
duced: 

254. Dabney: The Far-Reaching Influence of Rousseau's Writings. 

255. La Chalotais: Essay on National Education. 

256. Condorcet: Outline of a Plan for Organizing Public Instruction in 

France. 

257. Report: Founding of the Polytechnic School at Paris. 



290 , A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

258. Barnard: Work of the National Convention in France. 

(a) Various legislative proposals. 

(b) The Law of 1795 organizing Primary Instruction. 

259. American States: Early Constitutional Provisions relating to Edu- 

cation. 

260. Ohio: Educational Provisions of First Constitution. 

261. Indiana: Educational Provisions of First Constitution. 

262. American States: Early School Legislation in. 

263. Jefferson: Plan for Organizing Education in Virginia. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Barnard, Henry. American Journal of Education, vol. 22, pp. 651-64. 
Compayre, G. History of Pedagogy, chapters 15, 16, 17. 
Cubberley, E. P. Public Education in the United States, chapter 3. 



CHAPTER XXI 

A NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER FOR THE 
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

In chapters xvii and xviii we traced the development of educa- 
tional theory up to the point where John Locke left it (p. 217) 
after outlining his social and disciplinary theory for the educa- 
tional process, and in the chapter preceding this one we traced the 
evolution of a new state theory as to the purpose of education to 
replace the old religious theory. The new theory as to state con- 
trol, and the erection of a citizenship purpose for education, made 
it both possible and desirable that the instruction in the school, 
and particularly in the vernacular school, should be recast, both in 
method -and content, to bring the school into harmony with the 
new secular purpose. In consequence, an important reorgan- 
ization of the vernacular school now took place, and to this 
transformation of the elementary school we next turn. 

I. THE NEW THEORY STATED 

Iconoclastic nature of the work of Rousseau. The inspirer of 
the new theory as to the purpose of education was none other 
than the French-Swiss iconoclast and pohtical writer, Jean- Jacques 
Rousseau, whose work as a political theorist we have previ- 
ously described. Happening to take up the educational problem 
as a phase of his activity against the political and social and 
ecclesiastical conditions of his age, drawing freely on Locke's 
Thoughts for ideas, and inspired by a feeling that so corrupt and 
debased was his age that if he rejected everything accepted by it 
and adopted the opposite he would reach the truth, Rousseau re- 
stated his political theories as to the control of man by society 
and his ideas as to a hfe according to " nature " in a book in which 
he described the education, from birth to manhood, of an imagi- 
nary boy, Emile, and his future wife, Sophie. In the first sentence 
of the book Rousseau sets forth his fundamental thesis: 

All is good as it comes from the hand of the Creator; all degenerates 
under the hands of man. He forces one country to produce the fruits 
of another, one tree to bear that of another. He confounds climates, 
elements, and seasons; he mutilates his dog, his horse, his slave; turns 



292 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




Fig. 69. The Rousseau 
Monument at Geneva 



everything topsy-turvy, disfigures everything. He will have nothing 
as nature made it, not even man himself; he must be trained like a 
managed horse, trimmed like a tree in a garden. 

His book, published in 1762, in no sense outlined a workable 
system of education. Instead, in charming Hterary style, with 
much sophistry, many paradoxes, numerous irrelevant digressions 

upon topics having no relation 
to education, and in no system- 
atic order, Rousseau presented his 
ideas as to the nature and purpose 
of education. Emphasizing the 
importance of the natural devel- 
opment of the child (R. 264 a), 
he contended that the three great 
teachers of man were nature, man,,\ 
and experience, and that the sec- 
ond and third tended to destroy 
the value of the first (R. 264 b); 
that the child should be handled 
in a new way, and that the most 
important item in his training up 
to twelve years of age was to do nothing (R. 264 c, d) so that 
nature might develop his character properly (R. 264 e) ; and that 
from twelve to fifteen his education should be largely from things 
and nature, and not from books (R. 264 f). As the outcome of 
such an education Rousseau produced a boy who, from his point 
of view, would at eighteen still be natural (R. 264 g) and un- 
spoiled by the social life about him, which, after all, he felt was 
soon to pass away (R. 264 i). The old religious instruction he 
would completely supersede (R. 264 h). 

So depraved was the age, and so wretched were the educational 
practices of his time, that, in spite of the malevolent impulse 
which was his driving force, what he wrote actually contained 
many excellent ideas, pointed the way to better practices, and be- 
came an inspiration for others who, unHke Rousseau, were deeply 
interested in problems of education and child welfare. One can- 
not study Rousseau's writings as a whole, see him in his eight- 
eenth-century setting, know of his personal Kfe, and not feel that 
the far-reaching reforms produced by his Entile are among the 
strangest facts in history. 

The valuable elements in Rousseau's work. Amid his glitter- 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 293 

ing generalities and striking paradoxes Rousseau did, however, 
set forth certain important ideas as to the proper education of 
children. Popularizing the best ideas of the EngHshman, Locke 
(p. 217), Rousseau may be said to have given currency to certain 
conceptions as to the education of children which, in the hands of 
others, brought about great educational changes. Briefly stated, 
these were: 

1. The replacement of authority by reason and investigation. 

2. That education should be adapted to the gradually unfolding 
capacities of the child. 

3. That each age in the life of a child has activities which are normal 
t ^ that age, and that education should seek for and follow these. 

4. 'lihat physical activity and health are of first importance. 

5. That education, and especially elementary education, should take 
place through the senses, rather than through the memory. 

6. That the emphasis placed on the memory in education is funda- 
mentally wrong, dwarfing the judgment and reason of the child. 

7. That catechetical and Jesuitical types of education should be 
abandoned. 

8. That the study of theological subtleties is unsuited to child needs 
or child capacity. 

9. That the natural interests, curiosity, and activities of children 
should be utilized in their education. 

10. That the normal activities of children call for expression, and that 
the best means of utilizing these activities are conversation, 
writing, drawing, music, and play. 

11. That education should no longer be exclusively literary and lin- 
guistic, but should be based on sense perception, expression, and 
reasoning. 

12. That such education calls for instruction in the book of nature, 
with home geography and the investigation of elementary prob- 
lems in science occupying a prominent place. 

13. That the child be taught rather than the subject-matter; life 
here rather than hereafter; and the development of reason rather 
than the loading of the memory, were the proper objects of edu- 
cation. 

14. That a many-sided education is necessary to reveal child possi- 
bihties; to correct the narrowing effect of specialized class educa- 
tion; and to prepare one for possible changes in fortune. 

Coming, as it did, at a time when poHtical and ecclesiastical 
despotisms were fast breaking down in France, when new forces 
were striving for expression throughout Europe, and when new 
theories as to the functions of government were being set forth in 
the American Colonies and in France, it gave the needed inspira- 
tion for the evolution of a new theory of non-religious, universal, 
and democratic education which would prepare citizens for intelli- 



294 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

gent participation in the functions of a democratic State, and for 
a reorganization of the subject-matter of education itself. 

II. GERMAN ATTEMPTS TO WORK OUT A NEW THEORY 

Influence of the Emile in German lands. The Emile was 
widely read, not only in France, but throughout the continent of 
Europe as well. In German lands its publication coincided with 
the rising tide of nationaHsm — the "Period of Enlightenment " 
— and the book was warmly welcomed by such (then young) 
men as Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Richter, Fichte, and Kant. It 
presented a new ideal of education and a new ideal for hum anity, 
and its ideas harmonized well with those of the newly c eated 
aristocracy of worth which the young German enthusiasts were 
busily engaged in proclaiming for their native land. 

Perhaps the most important practical influence exerted by the 
Emile in German lands came in the work of Johann Bernard 
Basedow and his followers. Deeply imbued with the new scien- 
tific spirit, in thorough revolt against the dominance of the 
Church in human lives, and incited to new efforts by his reading 

of the Emile, Basedow thought out 
a plan for a reform school which 
should put many of Rousseau's ideas 
into practice. In 1768 he issued his 
Address to Philanthropists and Men of 
Property on Schools and Studies and 
their Influence on the Public Weal, in 
which he appealed for funds to enable 
him to open a school to try out his 
ideas, and to enable him to prepare 
a new type of textbooks for the use of 
schools. He proposed in this appeal 
^'^- l^:j2^-gor^ to organize a school which should be 

non-sectarian, and also advocated 
the creation of a National Council of Education to have charge 
of all pubhc instruction. These were essentially the ideas of the 
French political reformers of the time. The appeal was widely 
scattered, awakened much enthusiasm, and subscriptions to assist 
him poured in from many sources. 

In 1774 Basedow published two works of more than ordinary 
importance. The first, a Book of Method for Fathers and Mothers 
of Families and of Nations, was a book for adults, and outlined a 




NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 295 

plan of education for both boys and girls. The keynotes were 
''following nature," "impartial religious instruction," children to 
be dealt with as children, learning through the senses, language 
instruction by a natural method, and much study of natural ob- 
jects. The ideas were a combination of those of Bacon, Come- 
nius, and Rousseau. The second book, in four volumes, and con- 
taining one hundred copper-plate illustrations, was the famous 
Elementary Work {Rlementarwerk mit Kupfern) (R. 266), the 
first illustrated school textbook since the Orbis Pictus (1654) of 
Comenius. This work of Basedow's became, in German lands, 
the Orhis Pictus of the eighteenth century. By means of its 
''natural methods" (R. 265) children were to be taught to read, 
both the vernacular and Latin, more easily and in less time than 
had been done before, and in addition were to be given a knowl- 
edge of morals, commerce, scientific subjects, and social usages by 
"an incomparable method," founded on experience in teaching 
children. The book enjoyed a wide circulation among the middle 
and upper classes in German lands. 

Basedow's Philanthropinum, In 1774 Prince Leopold, of Des- 
sau, a town in the duchy of Anhalt, in northern Germany, gave 
Basedow the use of two buildings and a garden, and twelve thou- 
sand thalers in money, with which to establish his long-heralded 
Philanthropinum, which was to be an educational institution of a 
new type. Great expectations were aroused, and a widespread 
interest in the new school awakened. Education according to na- 
ture, with a reformed, time-saving, natural method for the teach- 
ing of languages, were to be its central ideas. Children were to 
be treated as children, and not as adults. Powdered hair, gilded 
coats, swords, rouge, and hoops were to be discarded for short 
hair, clean faces, sailor jackets, and caps, while the natural plays 
of children and directed physical training were to be made a fea- 
ture of the instruction. ' The languages were to be taught by con- 
versational methods. Each child was to be taught a handicraft 
— turning, planing, and carpentering were provided — for both 
social and educational reasons. Instruction in real things — 
science, nature — was to take the place of instruction in words, 
and the vernacular was to be the language of instruction. The 
institution was to have the atmosphere of religion, but was not 
to be Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed, or Jewish, and was to be 
free from "theologizing distinctions." Latin, German, French, 
mathematics, a knowledge of nature (geography, physics, natural 



296 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

history), music, dancing, drawing, and physical training. were the 
principal subjects of instruction.' The children were divided into 
four classes, and the instruction for each, with the textbooks to be 
used, was outlined (R. 265). 

As a promising experiment the school awakened widespread 
interest, and Basedow was supported by such thinkers of the 
time as Goethe and Kant. 

Basedow's influence, and followers. Basedow, though, was an 
impractical theorist, boastful and quarrelsome, vulgar and coarse, 
given to drunkenness and intemperate speech, and fond of making 
claims for his work which the results did not justify. In a few 
years he had been displaced as director, and in 1793 the Philan- 
thropinum closed its doors. The school, nevertheless, was a very 
important educational experiment, and Basedow's work for a 
time exerted a prof ound influence on German pedagogical thought. 
He may be said to have raised instruction in the Realien in 
German lands to a place of distinct importance, and to have 
given a turn to such instruction which it has ever since retained. 
The methods of instruction, too, worked out in arithmetic, geog- 
raphy, geometry, natural history, physics, and history were in 
many ways as revolutionary as those evolved by Pestalozzi later 
on in Switzerland. In his emphasis on scientific subject-matter 
Basedow surpassed Pestalozzi, but Pestalozzi possessed a clearer, 
intuitive insight into the nature and purpose of the educational 
process. The work of the two men furnishes an interesting basis 
for comparison (R. 271), and the work of each gave added impor- 
tance to that of the other. 

From Dessau an interest in pedagogical ideas and experiments 
spread over Europe, and particularly over German lands. Other 
institutions, modeled after the Philanthropinum, were founded in 
many places, and some of Basedow's followers did as important 
work along certain lines as did Basedow himself. His followers 
were iiumerous, and of all degrees of worth. They urged accept- 
ance of the new ideas of Rousseau as worked out and promulgated 
by Basedow; vigorously attacked the old schools, making con- 
verts here and there; and in a way helped to prepare northern 
German lands for the incoming, later, of the better-organized 
ideas of the German-Swiss reformer Pestalozzi, to whose work we 
next turn. 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 297 

HI. THE WORK AND INFLUENCE OF PESTALOZZI 

The inspiration of Pestalozzi. Among those most deeply in- 
fluenced by Rousseau's Emile was a young German-Swiss by the 
name of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who was born (1746) and 
brought up in the ancient city of Zurich. Inspired by Rousseau's 
writings he spent the early part of his life in trying to render serv- 
ice to the poor, and the latter part in working out for himself a 
theory and a method of instruction based on the natural develop- 
ment of the child. To Pestalo zzi, more than to any one else, we 
owe the foundations of the modern secular vernacular elementary 
school, and in consequence his work is of commanding importance 
in the history of the development of educational practice. 

Trying to educate his own child according to Rousseau's plan, 
he not^only discovered its impracticability but also that the only 
way to improve on it was to study the children themselves. Ac- 
cordmgly he opened a school and home on his farm at Neuhof, 
in 1774. Here he took in fifty abandoned children, to whom 
he taught reading, writing, and arithmetic, gave them moral 
discourses, and trained them in gardening, farming, and cheese- 
making. It was an attempt to regenerate beggars by means of 
education, which Pestalozzi firmly believed could be done. At 
the end of two years he had spent all the money he and his wife 
possessed, and the school closed in failure — a blessing in dis- 
guise — though with Pestalozzi's faith in the power of education 
unshaken. Of this experiment he wrote: " For years I have lived 
in the midst of fifty little beggars, sharing in my poverty my 
bread with them, living like a beggar myself in order to teach 
beggars to live Hke men." 

Turning next to writing, while continuing to farm, Pestalozzi 
now tried to express his faith in education in printed form. His 
Leonard and Gertrude (1781) was a wonderfully beautiful story of 
Swiss peasant life, and of the genius and sympathy and love of a 
woman amid degrading surroundings. From a wretched place 
the village of Bonnal, under Pestalozzi's pen, was transformed by 
the power of education. The book was a great success from the 
first, and for it Pestalozzi was made a ''citizen" of the French 
Republic. He continued to farm and to think, though nearly 
starving, until 1798, when the opportunity for which he was really 
fitted came. 

Pestalozzi's educational experiments. In 1798 '' The Helvetic 



298 • A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Republic" was proclaimed, an event which divided Pestalozzi's 
life into two parts. Up to this time he had been interested wholly 
in the philanthropic aspect of education, believing that the poor 
could be regenerated through education and labor. From this 




FRAN CE 



%? 



Monasteries 



f I T A L Y %.: 



Fig. 71. The Scene of Pestalozzi's Labors 

time on he interested himself in the teaching aspect of the prob- 
lem, in the working-out and formulation of a teaching method 
based on the natural development of the child, and in training 
others to teach. Much to the disgust of the authorities of the 
new Swiss Government, citizen Pestalozzi applied for service as 
a schoolteacher. The opportunity to render such service soon 
came. 

That autumn the French troops invaded Switzerland, and, in 
putting down the stubborn resistance of the three German can- 
tons, shot down a large number of the people. Orphans to the 
number of 169 were left in the little town of Stanz, and citizen 
Pestalozzi was given charge of them. For six months he was 
father, mother, teacher, and nurse. Then, worn out himself, the 
orphanage was changed into a hospital". A little later he became 
a schoolmaster in Burgdorf ; was dismissed; became a teacher in 
another school; and finally, in 1800, opened a school himself in an 
old castle there. He now drew about him other teachers inter- 
ested in improving instruction, and in consequence could special- 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 299 

ize the work. Hej^rpvided separate teachers for drawing and 
singing, geography and history, language and arithmetic, and 
gymnastics. The year following the school was enlarged into a 
teachers' training-school, the government extending him aid in re- 
turn for giving Swiss teachers one month of training as teachers 
in his school. In 1803, the castle being needed by the gov- 
ernment, Pestalozzi moved first to Munchenbuchsee, near Hof- 
wyl, opening his Institute temporarily in an old convent there. 
For a few months, in 1804, he was associated with Emanuel von 
Fellenberg, at Hofwyl (p. 303), but in October, 1804, he moved 
to Yverdon, where he reestablished the Institute, and where the 
next twenty years of his life were spent and his greatest success 
achieved. 

The contribution of Pestalozzi. The great contribution of 
Pestalozzi lay in that, following the lead of Rousseau, he rejected 
the religious aim and the teaching of mere words and facts, which 
had characterized all elementary education up to near the close of v / 
the eighteenth century, and tried instead to reduce the educa- V 
tional process to a well-organized routine, based on the natural 
and orderly development of the instincts, capacities, and powers 
of the growing child. Taking Rousseau's idea of a return to na- 
tureThe tried to apply it to the education of children. This led to 
his rejection of what he called the ''empty chattering of mere 
words " and " outward show " in the instruction in reading and the 
catechism, and the introduction in their place of real studies, 
based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning. "Sense 
Impression" became his watchword. As he expressed it, he k 
''tried to organize and psychologize the educational process" by ' 
harmonizing it with the natural development of the child (R. 267). 
To this end he carefully studied children, and developed his 
methods experimentally as a result of his observation. 

The development of man he believed to be organic, and to pro- 
ceed according to law. It was the work of the teacher to discover 
these laws of development and to assist nature in securing "a 
natural, symmetrical, and harmonious development" of all the 
*' faculties " of the child. Real education must develop the child 
as a whole — mentally, physically, morally — and called for the \ 
training of the head and the hand and the heart. The only proper 
means for developing the powers of the child was use, and hence 
education must guide and stimulate self-activity, be based on in- 
tuition and exercise, and the sense impressions must be organized 



300 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and directed. Education, too, if it is to follow the organic devel- 
opment of the child, must observe the proper progress of child de- 
velopment and be graded, so that each step of the process shall 
grow out of the preceding and grow into the following stage. To 
accompKsh these end^ilhe training must be all-round and har- 
monious; much liberty must be allowed the child in learning; edu- 
cation must proceed largely by doing instead of by words, the 
method of learning must be largely analytical; real objects and 
ideas must precede symbols and words; and, finally, the organiza- 
tion and correlation of what is learned must be looked after by the 
teacher. 

Still more, Pestalozzi possessed a deep and abiding faith, new at 
the time, in the power of education as a means of regenerating 
society. He had begun his work by trying to "teach beggars to 
live like men," and his belief in the potency of education in work- 
ing this transformation, so touchingly expressed in his Leonard 
and Gertrude, never left him. He beHeved that each human being 
could be raised through the influence of education to the level of 
an intellectually free and morally independent life, and that every 
human being was entitled to the right to attain such freedom and 
independence. The way to this lay through the full use of his 
developing powers, under the guidance of a teacher, and not 
through a process of repeating words and learning by heart. Not 
only the intellectual qualities of perception. Judgment, and reason- 
ing need exercise, but the moral powers as well. To provide such 
exercise and direction was the work of the school. 

The consequences of these ideas. The educational conse- 
quences of these new ideas were very large. They in time gave 
aim and purpose to the elementary school of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, transforming it from an instrument of the Church for church 
ends, to an instrument of society to be used for its own regenera- 
tion and the advancement of the welfare of all. The introduc- 
tion of the study of natural objects in place of words, and much 
talking about what was seen and studied instead of parrot-like 
reproductions of the words of a book, revolutionized both the 
methods and the subject-matter of instruction in the developing 
elementary school. Observation and investigation tended to 
supersede mere memorizing; class discussion and thinking to su- 
persede the reciting of the words of the book; thinking about 
what was being done to supersede routine learning; and class in 
struction to supersede the wasteful individual teaching which had 




Plate 4. Pestalozzi Monument at Yverdon 

A picture of this monument occupies a prominent place in every 

schoolroom in Switzerland. 



J. 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 301 

for so long characterized all school work. It nieaiit the reorgani- 
zation of the work of the vernacular school on a modern basis, 
with class organization and group instruction, and a modern- 
world purpose (R. 269). 

The work of Pestalozzi also meant the introduction of new 
subject-matter for instruction, the organization of new teaching 
subjects for the elementary school, and the redirection of the el- 
ementary education of children. Observation led to the devel- 
opment of elementary-science study, and the study of home 
geography ; talking about what was observed led to the study of 
language usage, as distinct from the older study of grammar; and 
counting and measuring led to the study of number, and hence to V 
a new type of primary arithmetic. The reading of the school also 
changed both in character and purpose. In other words, in place 
of an elementary education based on reading, a little writing and 
spelling, and the catechism, all of a memoriter type and with re- 
ligious ends in view, a new primary school, essentially secular in 
character, was created by the work of Pestalozzi. This new 
school was based on the study of real objects, learning through 
sense impressions, the individual expression of ideas, child activ- 
ity, and the development of the child's powers in an orderly way. 
In fact, "the development of the faculties" of the child became a 
by-word with Pestalozzi and his followers. 

The spread and influence of Pestalozzi's work. So famous did 
the work of Pestalozzi become that his schools at Burgdorf and 
Yverdon came to be "show places," even in a land filled with nat- 
ural wonders. Observers and students came from America (R. 
268) and from all over Europe to see and to teach in his school, 
and draw inspiration from seeing his work (R. 270) and talking 
with him. In particular the educators of Prussia were attracted 
by his work, and, earUer than other nations, saw the far-reaching 
significance of his discoveries. Herbart visited his school as early 
as 1799, when but a young man of twenty- three, and wrote a very 
sympathetic description of his new methods. Froebel spent the 
years 1808 to 1 810 as a teacher at Yverdon, when he was a young 
man of twenty-six to eight. "It soon became evident to me," 
wrote Froebel, "that 'Pestalozzi' was to be the watchword of my 
life." The philosopher Fichte, whose Addresses (1807-08) on the 
condition of the German people (page 315), after their hu- 
mihating defeat by Napoleon, did much to reveal to Prussia the 
possibilities of national regeneration by means of education, had 



302 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

taught in Zurich, knew Pestalozzi, and afterward exploited his 
work and his ideas in BerHn. As early as 1803 an envoy, sent by 
the Prussian King, reported favorably on Pestalozzi's work, and 
in 1804 Pestalozzian methods were authorized for the primary 
schools of Prussia. In 1808 seventeen teachers were sent to 
Switzerland, at the expense of the Prussian Government, to spend 
three years in studying Pestalozzi's ideas and methods. On 
their return, these and others spread Pestalozzian ideas through- 
out Prussia. A pastor and teacher from Wiirtemberg, Karl 
August Zeller (i 774-1847), came to Burgdorf in 1803 to study. 
In 1806 he opened a training-school for teachers in Zurich, and 
there worked out a plan of studies based on the work of Pesta- 
lozzi. This was printed and attracted much attention. In 1808 
the King of Wiirtemberg listened to five lectures on Pestalozzian 
methods by Zeller, and invited him to a position as school inspec- 
tor in his State. Before he had done but a few months' work he 
was called to Prussia, to organize a normal school and begin the 
introduction of Pestalozzian ideas there. From Prussia the ideas 
and methods of Pestalozzi gradually spread to the other German 
States. 

Many Swiss teachers were trained by Pestalozzi, and these also 
helped to extend his work and ideas over Switzerland. Particu- 
larly in German Switzerland did his ideas take root and reorgan- 
ize education. As a result modern systems of education made an 
early start in these cantons. One of Pestalozzi's earliest and most 
faithful teachers, Hermann Kriisi, became principal of the Swiss 
normal school at Gais, and trained teachers there in Pestalozzian 
methods. Zeller's pupils, too, did much to spread his influence 
among the Swiss. Pestalozzi's ideas were also carried toJEngland, 
but in no such satisfactory manner as to the German States. 
Where German lands received both the method and the spirit, 
the EngHsh obtained largely the form. Later Pestalozzian ideas 
came to the United States, at first largely through English sources, 
and, after about i860, resulted in a thoroughgoing reorganization 
of American elementary education. 

The manual-labor school of Fellenberg. Of the Swiss associ- 
ates and followers of Pestalozzi one of the most influential was 
Phillip Emanuel von Fellenberg (i 771-1844). Having become 
convinced that correct early education was the only means where- 
by the State might be elevated and the lot of man made better, 
resolved (1805) to devote his Hfe and his fortune to the working 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 303 

out of his ideas. For a short time associated with Pestalozzi, he 
soon withdrew and estabhshed, on his own estate, an Institution 
which later (1829) came to comprise the following: 

1. A farm of about six hundred acres. 

2. Workshops for manufacturing clothing and tools. 

3. A printing and lithographing establishment. 

4. A literary institution for the education of the well-to-do. 

5. A lower or real school, which trained for handicrafts and middle- 
class occupations. 

6. An agricultural school for the education of the poor as farm 
laborers, and as teachers for the rural schools. 

Fellenberg's work was a continuation of the social-regeneration 
conception of education held by Pestalozzi, and contained the 
germ-idea of all our agricultural and 
industrial education. His plan was 
widely copied in Switzerland, Ger- 
many, England, and the United States. 
It was well suited to the United States 
because of the very democratic condi- 
tions then prevailing among an agri- 
cultural people possessed of but Httle 
wealth. The plan of combining farm- 
ing and schooling made for a time a 
strong appeal to Americans, and such 
schools were founded in many parts 
of the country. The idea at first ^^^- J^' Fellenberg 
was to unite training in agriculture ^ ^^ 

with schooling, but it was soon extended to the rapidly rising 
mechanical pursuits as well. The plan, however, was rather 
short-lived in the United States, due to the rise of manufacturing 
and the opening of rich and cheap farms to the westward, and 
lasted with us scarcely two decades. More than one hundred 
Reports (R. 272) were published, in Europe and America, on this 
very successful experiment in a combined intellectual and manual- 
labor type of education. 

IV. REDIRECTION OF THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

Significance of this work. Though some form of parish school 

for the elements of religious instruction had existed in many 

places during the later Middle Ages, and foundations providing 

for some type of elementary instruction had appeared here and 




304 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

there in almost all lands, the elementary vernacular school, as we 
have previously pointed out, was nevertheless clearly the out- 
come of the Protestant movement in the sixteenth century, and 
in rts origin was essentially a child of the Church. A child of the 
Church, too, for more than two centuries the elementary vernacu- 
lar school remained. During these two centuries the elementary 
school made slow but rather unsatisfactory progress, due largely 
to there being no other motive for its maintenance or expansion 
than the original religious purpose. Only in the New England 
Colonies in North America, in some of the provinces of the Neth- 
erlands, and in a few of the German States had any real progress 
been made in evolving any different type of school out of this 
early religious creation, and even in these places the change was 
in form of control rather than in subject-matter or purpose. The 
school remained religious in purpose, even though its control was 
beginning to pass from the Church to the State. 

Now, within half a century, beginning with the work of Rous- 
seau (1762), and by means of the labors of the political philoso- 
phers of France, the Revolutionary leaders in the American Colo- 
nies, the legislative Assemblies and Conventions in France, and 
the experimental work of Basedow and his followers in German 
lands and of Pestalozzi and his disciples in Switzerland, the whole 
purpose and nature of the elementary vernacular school was 
changed. The American and French poHtical revolutions and the 
more peaceful changes in England had ushered in new concep- 
tions as to the nature and purpose and duties of government. As 
a consequence of these new ideas, education had come to be re- 
garded in a new light, and to assume a new importance in the 
eyes of statesmen. In place of schools to serve religious and sec- 
tarian ends, and maintained as an adjunct of the parishes or of a 
State Church, the elementary vernacular school now came to be 
conceived of as an instrument of the State, the chief purpose of 
which was to serve state ends. Some time would, of course, be 
required to develop the state support necessary to effect the com- 
plete transformation in control, and the forces of reaction would 
naturally delay the process as much as possible, but the theory of 
state purpose had at last been so effectively proclaimed, and the 
forces of a modern world were pushing the idea so steadily for- 
ward, that it was only a question of time until the change would 
be effected. 

A new impetus for change in control. Basedow and Pestalozzi, 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 305 

too, had given the movement for a transfer of control a new im- 
petus by working out new methods in instruction and in organiz- 
ing new subject-matter for the school, and methods and subject- 
m.atter which harmonized with the spirit and principles of the new 
democracy that had been proclaimed. Pestalozzi in particular 
had sought, guided by a clearer insight into the educational prob- 
lem than Basedow possessed (R. 271), to create a school in which 
children might, under the wise guidance of the teacher, develop 
and strengthen their own ''faculties" and thus evolve into reason- 
ing, self-directing human beings, fitted for usefulness and service 
in a modern world. To make intelligent and reasoning individu- 
als of all citizens, to develop moral and civic character, to train 
for life in organized society, and to serve as an instrument by 
means of which an ignorant, drunken, immoral, and shiftless 
working-class and peasantry might be elevated into men and 
women of character, intelHgence, and directive power, was in 
Pestalozzi's conception the underlying meaning of the school. 
After Pestalozzi, the earlier conception as to the religious purpose 
of the elementary vernacular schools, by means of which children 
were to be trained almost exclusively ''in the principles of our 
holy religion" and to become "loyal church members," and to 
"fit them for that station in life in which it hath pleased their 
Heavenly Father to place them," was doomed. In its stead 
there was certain to arise a newer conception of the school as an 
instrument of that form of organized society known as the State, 
and maintained by the State to train its future citizens for intelli- 
gent participation in the duties and obligations of citizenship, and 
for social, moral, and economic efficiency. 

The way now becoming clear. After two hundred and fifty 
years of confusion and political failure, the way was now at last 
becoming clear for the creation of national instead of church sys- 
tems of elementary education, and for the firm establishment of 
the elementary vernacular school as an important obligation to 
its future citizens of every progressive modern State and the com- 
mon birthright of all. This became distinctively the work of the 
nineteenth century. It also became the work of the nineteenth 
century to gather up the old secondary-school and university 
foundations, accumulated through the ages, and remould them to 
meet modern needs, fuse them into the national school systems 
created, and connect them in some manner with the people's 
schools. To see how this was done we next turn to the begin- 



3o6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

nings of the organization of national school systems in the German 
States, France, England, and the United States. These may be 
taken as types. As Prussia was the first modern State to grasp 
the significance of national education, and to organize state schools, 
we shall begin our study by first tracing the steps by which 
this transformation was effected there. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Compare the statement of the valuable elements in the theories of Rous- 
seau (p. 293) with the main ideas of Basedow (p. 295); Ratke (p. 220); 
Comenius (p. 221). 

2. Do we accept all the fourteen points of Rousseau's theory to-day? 

3. Might a Rousseau have done work of similar importance in Russia, early 
in the twentieth century? Why? 

4. Explain the educational significance of ''self-activity," "sense impres- 
sions," and "harmonious development." 

5. What were the strong points in the experimental work of Basedow? 

6. Explain the great enthusiasm which his rather visionary statements and 
plans awakened. 

7. Show the importance of such work as that of Basedow in preparing the 
way for better-organized reform work. 

8. How far was Pestalozzi right as to the power of education to give men 
intellectual and moral freedom? 

9. What do you understand Pestalozzi to have meant by "the development 
of the faculties"? 

10. State the importance of the work of Pestalozzi from the point of view 
of showing the world how to deal with orphans and defectives. 

11. Show how the germs of agricultural and technical education lay in the 
work of Fellenberg. 

12. Explain the greater popularity of the Emile in German lands. 

13. State the change in subject-matter and aims from the vernacular church 
school to the school as thought out by Pestalozzi. 

14. Show that it was a fortunate conjunction that brought the work of Pesta- 
lozzi alongside of that of the political reformers of France. 

15. What differences might there have been had Comenius lived and done 
his work in the time of Pestalozzi? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections, illustrative 
of the contents of this chapter, are reproduced: 

264. Rousseau: Illustrative Selections from the Emile. 

265. Basedow: Instruction in the Philanthropinum. 

266. Basedow: A Page from the Elementarwerk. 

267. Pestalozzi: Explanation of his Work. 

268. Griscom: A Visit to Pestalozzi at Yverdon. 

269. Woodbridge: An Estimate of Pestalozzi's Work. 

270. Dr. Mayo: On Pestalozzi. 

271. Woodbridge: Work of Pestalozzi and Basedow compared. 

272. Griscom: Hofwyl as seen by an American. 



NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER 307 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

♦Anderson L. F. -The Manual-Labor-School Movement"; in Educa- 
honal Review, vol. 46, pp. 369-8S. (November, 191 3 ) ' "^ 

Barnard, Henry. Pestalozzi and his Educational System 
^Compayre, G. Jean-Jacques Rousseau. 

Compayre, G. Pestalozzi and Elementary Education 

Guimps, Roger de. Pestalozzi: his Aim and Work 
^Krusi, Hermann, Jr. Life and Work of Pestalozzi'. 

Parker, S. C. History of Modern Education, chaps. 8, 0, 12-16 
♦Pestalozzi, J. H. Leonard and Gertrude ^ 

Pestalozzi, J. H. How Gertrude teaches her Children 
Sch i ^' ^''^''^'''' ^'^^ ^^' Foundations of the Modern Elementary 



CHAPTER XXII 

NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 

I. THE BEGINNINGS OF NATIONAL ORGANIZATION 

Early German progress in school organization. The first mod- 
ern nation to take over the school from the Church, and to make 
of it an instrument for promoting the interests of the State was 
Prussia, and the example of Prussia was soon followed by the 
other German States. The reasons for this early action by the 
German States will be clear if we remember the marked progress 
made in establishing state control of the churches (p. 169) which 
followed the Protestant Revolts in German lands. Figure 36, 
page 169, reexamined now, will make the reason for the earlier 
evolution of state education in Germany plain. __JWurtemberg, 
as early as 1559, had organized the first German state-church 
school system, and had made attendance at the religious instruc- 
tion compulsory on the parents of all children. The example 
of Wiirtemberg was followed by Brunswick (1569), Saxony 
(1580), Weimar (1619), and Gotha (1642). In Weimar and 
Gotha the compulsory-attendance idea had even been adopted 
for elementary- school instruction to all children up to the age 
of twelve. 

By the middle of the seventeenth century most of the German 
States, even including Cathohc Bavaria, had followed the example 
of Wiirtemberg, and had created a state-church school system 
which involved at least elementary and secondary schools and the 
beginnings of compulsory school attendance. Notwithstanding 
the ravages of the Thirty Years' War (1618-48), the state-church 
schools of German lands contained , more definitely than had been 
worked out elsewhere, the germs of a separate state school organi- 
zation. Only in the American Colonies (p. 195) had an equal de- 
velopment in state-church organization and control been made. 
As state- church schools, with the religious purpose dominant, the 
German schools remained until near the middle of the eighteenth 
century. Then a new movement for state control began, and 
within fifty years thereafter they had been transformed into in- 
stitutions of the State, with the state purpose their most essential 
characteristic. How this transformation was effected in Prussia, 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 309 

the leader among the German States, and the forces which 
brought about the transformation, it will be the purpose of this 
chapter to relate. 

The earliest school laws for Prussia. In 17 13 there came to 
the kingship of Prussia an organizing genius in the person of Fred- 
eric William I (1713-40). Under his direction Prussia was given, 
for the first time, a centralized and uniform financial administra- 
tion, and the beginnings of state school organization were made. 
Though he cared nothing and did nothing for the universities, 
the religious reform movement of Francke, as well as his edu- 
cational undertakings, found in the new King a warm supporter. 
Largely in consequence of this the King became deeply inter- 
ested in attempts to improve and advance the education of the 
masses of his people. 

The first year of his reign he issued a Regulatory Code for the 
Reformed Evangehcal and Latin schools of Prussia, and in 171 7 
he issued the so-called "Advisory Order," relating to the people's 
schools. In this latter parents were urged, under penalty of 
''vigorous punishment," to send their children to school to learn 
religion, reading, writing, to calculate, and "all that could serve 
to promote their happiness and welfare." The tuition fees of 
poor children he ordered paid out of the community poor-box (R. 
273). The following year he directed the authorities of Lithuania 
to relieve the existing ignorance there, and sent commissioners to 
provide the villages with schoolmasters. From time to time he 
renewed his directions. To insure a better class of teachers for 
the towns and rural schools, he, in 1722, directed that no one be 
admitted to the office of sacristan-schoolmaster except tailors, 
weavers, smiths, wheelwrights, and carpenters, and in 1738 he 
further restricted the position of teacher in the town and rural 
schools to tailors. 

In 1737 the King issued his celebrated Principia Regulative, 
which henceforth became the fundamental School Law for the 
province of East Prussia. This prescribed conditions for the 
building of schoolhouses, the support of the schoolmaster, tuition 
fees, and government aid. The following digest of the section of 
the Principia relating to these matters gives a good idea as to the 
nature of the school regulations the King sought to enforce: 

1. The parishes forming school societies were obliged to build school- 
houses and to keep them in repair. 

2. The State was to furnish the necessary timber and firewood. 



310 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



Fig. 73. The School of a Handworker 

Conducted in his home. A gentleman visiting the school. After a drawing in the 

German School Museum in Berlin. 

3. The expenses for doors, windows, and stoves to be obtained from 
collections. 

4. Every church to pay four thalers a year toward the support of the 
schoolmaster. 

5. Tuition fees for each child, from four to twelve years of age, to be 
four groschen per year. 

6. Government to pay the fee when a peasant sends more than one 
child to school. 

7. The peasants to furnish the teacher with certain provisions. 

8. The teacher to have the right of free pasture for his small stock - 
and some fees from every child confirmed. 

9. Government to give the teacher one acre of land, which villagers 
were to till for him. 

In 1738 the King further regulated the private schools and 
teachers in and about Berlin, in particular deaHng with their 
qualifications and fees. The King showed, for the time, an inter- 
est heretofore almost unknown in and solicitude for the education 
of his people. That his decrees were in advance of the possibili- 
ties of the people in the matter of school support is not to be won- 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 311 

dered at. Still, they rendered useful service in preparing the way 
for further organizing work by his successors, and in particular in 
accustoming the people to the ideas of state oversight and local 
school support. Under his successor and son, Frederick the 
Great, the preparatory work of the father bore important fruit. 

The organizing work of Frederick the Great. In 1 740 Freder- 
ick II, surnamed the Great, succeeded his father, and in turn 
guided the destinies of Prussia for forty-six years. In 1740, 
1 741, and again in 1743 he issued ^'regulations concerning the 
support of schools in the villages of Prussia," in which he di- 
rected that new schools should be established, teachers provided 
for them, and that ''the existing school regulations and the ar- 
rangements made in pursuance thereto should be permanent, and 
that no change should be made under any pretext whatever." 

In 1750 he effected a centralization of all the provincial church 
consistories, except that of Catholic Silesia, under the Berlin Con- 
sistory. This was a centralizing measure of large future impor- 
tance, as it centralized the administration of the schools, as well as 
that of the churches, and transformed the Berlin Consistory into 
an important administrative agent of the central government. 
To this new centralized administrative organization the King is- 
sued instructions to pay special attention to schools, in order that 
they might be furnished with able schoolmasters and the young be 
well educated. One of the results of this centralization was the 
gradual evolution of the modern German Gymnasien, with uni- 
form standards and improved instruction, out of the old and 
weakened Latin schools of various types within the kingdom. 

From 1756 to 1763 Frederick was engaged in a struggle for 
existence, known as the Seven Years' War, but as soon as peace 
was at hand the King issued new regulations "concerning the 
maintenance of schools," and began employing competent school- 
masters for his royal estates. In April, 1763, he issued instruc- 
tions to have a series of general school regulations prepared for all 
Prussia, These were drawn up by Julius Hecker, a former pupil 
and teacher in Francke's Institution, and now become a pastor in 
Berlin and counselor for the Berlin Consistory. After approval 
by the King, these were issued, September 23, 1763, under the 
title of General Land-Schule Reglement (general school regulations 
for the rural and village schools) of all Prussia (R. 274). These 
new regulations constituted the first general School Code for the 
.wliole kingdom, and mark the real foundation of the Prussian 



312 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

elementary-school system. Two years later (1765) a similar but 
stronger set of regulations or Code was drawn up and promul- 
gated for the government of the Catholic elementary schools in 
the province of Silesia (R. 275). This was a new province which 
Frederick had wrested by force a few years previously (1748) 
from Maria Theresa of Austria, and the addition of a large number 
of Catholics to Prussia caused Frederick to issue specific regula- 
tions for schools among them. 

These two School Codes did not so much bring already existing 
schools into a state system, but rather set up standards and obli- 
gations for an elementary-school system in part to be created in 
the future. The schools were still left under the supervision and 
direction of the Church, but the State now undertook to tell the 
Church what it must do. To enforce the obligation the State 
Inspectors of Prussia were directed to make an annual inspection 
(R. 274, § 26) of all schools, and to forward a report on their in- 
spection to the Berlin Consistory. 

These new Codes met with resistance everywhere. The money 
for the execution of such a comprehensive project was not as yet 
generally available; parents and churches objected to taxation 
and to the loss of their children from work ; the wealthy landlords 
objected to the financial burden; the standards for teachers later 
on (1779) had to be lowered, and veterans from Frederick's wars 
installed; and the examinations of teachers had to be made easy 
to secure teachers at all for the schools. While there continued 
for some decades to be a vast difference between the actual condi- 
tions in the schools and the requirements of these Codes, and while 
the real establishment of a state school system awaited the first 
decade of the nineteenth century for its accomplishment, much 
valuable progress in organization nevertheless was made. In 
principle, at least, Frederick the Great, by the Codes of 1763 and 
1765, effected for elementary education a transition from the 
church school of the Protestant Reformation, and for Catholic 
Silesia from the parish school of the Church, to the state school of 
the nineteenth century. It remained only for his successors to 
realize in practice what he had made substantial beginnings of in 
law. Nowhere else in Europe that early had such progress in 
educational organization been made. 

Despite these many important educational efforts, though, the 
type and the work of teachers remained low throughout the whole 
of the eighteenth century. In the rural and village schools the 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 313 

teachers continued to be deficient in number and lacking in prepa- 
ration. Often the pastors had first to give to invalids, cripples, 
shoemakers, tailors, watchmen, and herdsmen the rudimentary 
knowledge they in turn imparted to the children. In the towns 
of fair size the conditions were not much better than in the vil- 
lages. The elementary school of the middle-sized towns generally 
had but one class, common for boys and girls, and the magis- 
trates did little to improve the condition of the schools or the 
teachers. In the larger cities, and even in Berlin, the number of 
elementary schools was insufficient, the schools were crowded, 
and many children had no opportunity to attend schools. In 
Leipzig there was no public school until 1792, in which year the 
city free school was estabhshed. Even Sunday schools, supported 
by subscription had been resorted to by Berlin, after 1798, to 
provide journeymen and apprentices with some of the rudiments 
of an education. The creation of a state school system out of the 
insufficient and inefficient religious schools proved a task of large 
dimensions, in Prussia as in other lands. Even as late as 1819 
Dinter found discouraging conditions (R. 279) among the teachers 
of East Prussia. 

Further late eighteenth-century progress. Frederick the 
Great died in 1786. In the reign of his successors his work bore 
fruit in a complete transfer of all schools from church to state con- 
trol, and in the organization of the strongest system of state 
schools the world had ever known. The year following the death 
of Frederick the Great (1787), and largely as an outgrowth of the 
preceding centralizing work with reference to elementary educa- 
tion, the Superior School (Oberschulcollegium) Board was estab- 
lished to exercise a similar centralized control over the older sec- 
ondary and higher schools of Prussia. Secondary and higher edu- 
cation were now severed from church control, in principle at least, 
as elementary education had been by the ''Regulations" of 1763 
and 1765. 

In 1 794 came the culmination of all the preceding work in the 
pubhcation of the General Civil Code {Allgemeine Landrecht) for 
the State, in which, in the section relating to schools, the following 
important declaration was made : 

Schools and universities are state institutions, charged with the 
instruction of youth in useful information and scientific knowledge. 
Such institutions may be founded only with the knowledge and con- 
sent of the State. All pubUc schools and educational institutions are 



314 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

under the supervision of the State, and are at all times subject to its 
examination and inspection. 

The secular authority and the clergy were still to share jointly in 
the control of the schools, but both according to rules laid down 
by the State. In all cases of conflict or dispute, the secular 
authority was to decide. This important document forms the 
Magna Charta for secular education in Prussia. During the dec- 
ade which followed the promulgation of this declaration of 
state control but little additional progress of importance was 
accomplished. 

II. A STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM AT LAST CREATED 

The humiliation of Prussia. Having humiliated the Austrians 
and vanquished the Russians, Napoleon now goaded the Prus- 
sians into attacking him, and then utterly humihated them in 
turn. At the battle of Jena (October 14, 1806) the Prussian army 
was utterly routed, and forced back almost to the Russian fron- 
tier. Officered by old generals and political favorites who were 
no longer efficient, and backed by a state service honeycombed 
with inefficiency and corruption, the Prussian army that had 
won such victories under Frederick the Great was all but anni- 
hilated by the new and efficient fighting machine created by the 
Corsican who now controlled the destinies of France. By the 
Treaty of Tilsit (July 7, 1807) Prussia lost all her lands west of 
the Elbe and nearly all her stealings from Poland — in all about 
one half her territory and population — and was almost stricken 
from the list of important powers in Europe. In all its history 
Prussia had experienced no such humihation as this. In a few 
months the constructive work of a century had been undone. 

The regeneration of Prussia. The new national German feel- 
ing, which had been slowly rising for half a century, now burst 
forth and soon worked a regeneration of the State. In the school 
of adversity the King and the people learned much, and the task 
of national reorganization was entrusted to a series of able minis- 
ters whom the King and his capable Queen, Louise, now called 
into service. Serfdom was abolished, local government was 
granted to the cities, legislative assemblies were organized, the 
army was reorganized and compulsory military service begun, 
and efficiency was introduced into the state service. 

Though the aboHtion of serfdom, the reform of the civil service, 
and the beginnings of local and representative government were 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 315 

important gains, nothing was of secondary importance to the 
complete reorganization of education which now took place. The 
education of the people was turned to in earnest for the regenera- 
tion of the national spirit, and education was, in a decade, made 
the great constructive agent of the State. Said the King: 

Though we have lost many square miles of land, though the country 
has been robbed of its e-xternal power and splendor, yet we shall and 
will gain in intrinsic power and splendor, and therefore it is my earnest 
wish that the greatest attention be paid to public instruction. . . . The 
State must regain in mental force what it has lost in physical force. 

Fichte appeals to the leaders. Still more did the philosopher 
Fichte (1762-1814), in a series of ''Addresses to the German Na- 
tion," delivered in Berhn during the winter of 1807-08, appeal 
to the leaders to turn to education to rescue the State from the 
miseries which had overwhelmed it. Unable forcibly to resist, 
and with every phase of the government determined by a foreign 
conqueror, only education had been overlooked, he said, and to 
this the leaders should turn for national redemption (R. 277). 

Fichte's Addresses stirred the thinkers among the German peo- 
ple as they had not been stirred since the days of the Reforma- 
tion, and a national reorganization of education, with national 
ends in view, now took place. As Duke Ernest remade Gotha, 
after the ravages of the Thirty Years' War, by means of education 
(p. 168), so the leaders of Prussia now created a new national 
spirit by taking over the school from the Church and forging it 
into one of the greatest constructive instruments of the State. 
The result showed itself in the "Uprising of Prussia," in the win- 
ter of 1812-13; the "War of Liberation," of 1813-15; the utter 
defeat of Napoleon at the battle of Leipzig by Russia, Prussia, 
and Austria, in 18 13 ; and again at the battle of Waterloo by Eng- 
land and Prussia, in 18 15. Still more clearly was the result 
shown in the humihating defeat of France, in 187c, when it was 
commonly remarked that the schoolmaster of Prussia had at last 
triumphed. The regeneration of Prussia in the early part of the 
nineteenth century, as well as its more recent humiliation, stand 
as eloquent testimonials to the tremendous influence of education 
on national destiny, when rightly and when wrongly directed. 

The reorganization of elementary education. The first step in 
the process of educational reorganization was the abolition (1807) 
of the OberscJmlcollegiiim Board, estabhshed (p. 313) in 1787 to 
supervise secondary and higher education, in order to get rid of 



3i6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




Fig. 74. Dinter(i 760-1 831) 

Director of Teachers' Seminaries in 
Saxony; Superintendent of Educa- 
tion in East Prussia, 



clerical influence and control. The next step was the creation in- 
stead (1808) of_aJ)egartment of Public Instruction, organized as 

a branch of the Interior Department 
of the State. 

One of the first steps of the acting 
head of the new department was to 
send seventeen Prussian teachers 
(1808) to Switzerland to spend three 
years, at the expense of the Govern- 
ment, in studying Pestalozzi's ideas 
and methods, and they were partic- 
ularly enjoined that they were not 
sent primarily to get the mechanical 
side of the method, but to 

warm yourselves at the sacred fire 
which burns in the heart of this man, 
so full of strength and love, whose work 
has remained so far below what he 

originally desired, below the essential ideas of his life, of which the 

method is only a feeble product. 

You will have reached perfection when you have clearly seen that 

education is an art, and the most sublime 

and holy of all, and in what connection 

it is with the great art of the education 

of nations. 

In 1809 Carl August Zeller (1774- 
1847), •^ pupil of Pestalozzi, who had 
established two Pestalozzian training- 
colleges in Switzerland and had just 
begun to hold Pestalozzian institutes 
in Wurtemberg (p. 302), was called 
to Prussia to organize a Teachers" 
Seminary (normal school) to train 
teachers in the Pestalozzian methods. 
The seventeen Prussian teachers, on 
their return from study with Pesta- 
lozzi, were also made directors of 
training institutions, or provincial 
superintendents of instruction. In 
this way Pestalozzian ideas were soon 
in use in the elementary schoolrooms of Prussia, and so effective 
was this work, and so readily did the Prussian teachers catch 




Fig. 75. DiESTERWEG 

( 1 790-1866) 

Director of Teachers' Semina- 
ries at Maurs (1820-33) and Ber- 
lin (1833-49)- "Der deutsche 
Pestalozzi" 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 317 

the spirit of Pestalozzi's endeavors, that at the Berhn celebra- 
tion of the centennial of his birth, in 1846, the German educator 
Diesterweg said: 

By these men and these means, men trained in the Institution at 
Yverdon under Pestalozzi, the study of his publications, and the appli- 
cations of his methods in the model and normal schools of Prussia, 
after 1808, was the present Prussian, or rather Prussian-Pestalozzian 
school system established, for he is entitled to at least one half the 
fame of the German popular schools. 

Similarly Gustavus Friedrich Dinter, who early distinguished 
himself as principal of a Teachers' Seminary in Saxony, was called 
to Prussia and made School Counselor (Superintendent) for the 
province of East Prussia. Wherever Prussia could find men, in 
other States, who knew Pestalozzian methods and possessed the 
new conception of education, they were called to Prussia and put 
to work, and the statement of Dinter was characteristic of the 
spirit which animated their work. He said: 

I promised God, that I would look upon every Prussian peasant 
child as a being who could complain of me before God, if I did not pro- 
vide him with the best education, as a man and a Christian, which it 
was possible for me to provide. 

Work of the Teachers' Seminaries. Napoleon had imposed 
heavy financial indemnities on Prussia, as well as loss of territory, 
and the material means with which to estabhsh schools were 
scanty indeed. With a keen conception of the practical difficul- 
ties, the leaders saw that the key to the problem lay in the crea- 
tion of a new type of teaching force, and to this end they began 
from the first to establish Teachers' Seminaries. Those who de- 
sired to enter these institutions were carefully selected, and out 
of them a steady stream of what Horace Mann described (R. 278) 
as a "beneficent order of men" were sent to the schools, '^mould- 
ing the character of the people, and carrying them forward in 
a career of civilization more rapidly than any other people in 
the world are now advancing." Mann described, with marked 
approval, both the teacher and the training he received. 

So successful were these institutions that within a decade, 
under the glow of the new national spirit animating the people, 
the elementary schools were largely transformed in spirit and 
purpose, and the position of the elementary-school teacher was 
elevated from the rank of a trade (R. 279) to that of a profession 



3i8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

(R. 278). By 1840, when the earlier fervor had died out and a 
reaction had clearly set in, there were in Prussia alone thirty- 
eight Teachers' Seminaries for elementary teachers, approximately 
thirty thousand elementary schools, and every sixth person in 
Prussia was in school. In the other German States, and in 
Holland, Sweden, and France, analogous but less extensive prog- 
ress in providing normal schools and elementary schools had 
been made; but in Austria, which did not for long follow the 
Prussian example, the schools remained largely stationary for 
more than half a century to come. 

Nationalizing the elementary instruction. That the system of 
elementary vernacular or people's schools (the term Volksschule "jr^ 
now began to be applied) now created should be permeated by a 
strong nationalistic tone was, the times and circumstances con- 
sidered, only natural. Though the Pestalozzian theories as to 
the development of the mental faculties, training through the 
senses, and the power of education to regenerate society were 
accepted, along with the new Pestalozzian subject-matter and 
methods in instruction (p. 302), all that could be rendered useful 
to the Prussian State in its extremity naturally was given special 
emphasis. Thus all that related to the home country — geogra- 
phy, history, and the German speech — was taught as much 
from the patriotic as from the pedagogical point of view. Music 
was given special emphasis as preparatory for participation in the 
patriotic singing-societies and festivals, which were organized 
at the time of the ''Uprising of Prussia" (1813). Drawing and 
arithmetic were emphasized for their practical values. Physical 
exercises were given an emphasis before unknown, because of 
their hygienic and miUtary values. Finally religion was given an 
importance beyond that of Pestalozzi's school, but with the em- 
phasis now placed on moral earnestness, humility, self-sacrifice, 
and obedience to authority, rather than the earher stress on the 
Catechism and church doctrine. 

Clearly perceiving, decades ahead of other nations, the power 
of such training to nationalize a people and thus strengthen the 
State, the Prussian leaders, in the first two decades of the nine- 
teenth century, laid the foundations of that training of the 
masses, and of teachers for the masses (R. 280), which, more than 
any other single item, paved the way for the development of a 
national German spirit, the unification of German lands into 
an Imperial German Empire, and that blind trust in and obedi- 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 319 

ence to authority which has recently led to a second national 
humiliation. 

The reorganization of secondary education. Alongside this 
elementary-school system for the masses of the people, the older 
secondary and higher school system for a directing class (p. 187) 
also was largely reorganized and redirected. 

In 18 10 the examination of all secondary-school teachers, ac- 
cording to a uniform state plan, was ordered. The examinations 
were to be conducted for the State by the university authorities; 
to be based on university training in the gymnasial subjects, with 
an opportunity to reveal special preparation in any subject or sub- 
jects; and no one in the future could even be nominated for a posi- 
tion as a gymnasial teacher who had not passed this examination. 
This meant the erection of the work of teaching in the secondary 
schools into a distinct profession; the elimination from the schools 
of the theological student who taught for a time as a stepping- 
stone to a church Hving; and the end of easy local examination 
and approval by town authorities or the patrons of a school. To 
insure still better preparation of candidates, Pedagogical Seminars 
were begun in the universities for imparting to future gymnasial 
teachers some pedagogical knowledge and insight while Philo- 
logical Seminars also appeared, about the same time, to give ad- 
ditional training in understanding the spirit of instruction in the 
chief subjects of the gymnasial course — the classics. In 1826 a 
year of trial teaching before appointment (Probejahr) was added 
for all candidates, and in 183 1 new and more stringent regulations 
for the examination of teachers were ordered. At least two gen- 
erations ahead of other nations, Prussia thus developed a body of 
professional teachers for its secondary schools. 

Founding of the University of Berlin. One result of the Treaty 
of Tilsit (p. 314) was that Prussia had lost all her universities, 
except three along the Baltic coast. Both Halle and Gottingen 
were lost, and the loss of Halle was a severe blow. In 1807 
Fichte, who had been a professor at Jena, drew up a plan and sub- 
mitted it to the King for the organization of a new university at 
BerHn. When Humboldt came to the head of the Department of 
PubKc Instruction the idea at once won his enthusiastic approval. 
In May, 1809, he reported favorably on the project to the King, 
and three months later a Cabinet Order was issued creating the 
new university, giving it an annual money grant, and assigning a 
royal palace to it for a home. The spirit with which the new in- 



320 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

stitution was founded may be inferred from the following extract 
from a memorial, published by Humboldt, in 1810. In this he 
said: 

The State should not treat the universities as if they were higher 
classical schools or schools of special sciences. On the whole the State 
should not look to them at all for anything that directly concerns its 
own interests, but should rather cherish a conviction that, in fulfilling 
their real destination, they will not only serve its own purposes, but 
serve them on an infinitely higher plane, commanding a much wider 
field of operation, and affording room to set in motion much more 
efficient springs and forces than are at the disposal of the State itself. 

This university was indeed a new creation, and to the selection 
of its first faculty Humboldt devoted almost all his energies 
during the period he remained in office. From the first, high at- 
tainment in some branch of knowledge, and the ability to advance 
that knowledge, was placed ahead of mere teaching skill. The 
most eminent scholars in all lines were invited to the new 
''chairs," and when it opened (18 10) its first faculty represented 
the highest attainment of scholarship in German lands. From 
the first the instruction divested itself of almost all that charac- 
terized the school. The lecture replaced the classroom recitation, 
and the seminar, in which small groups of advanced students 
investigate a problem under the direction of a professor, was given 
a place of large importance in the institution. Original research 
and contributions to knowledge marked the work of both stu- 
dents and professors, the object being, not to train teachers for 
the schools, but to produce scholars capable of advancing knowl- 
edge by personal research. 

The effect on the other German universities was marked. 
Some of the older institutions (Erfurt, Wittenberg, Cologne, 
Mainz) died out, while new foundations (Breslau, 181 1; Bonn, 
1818; Munich, 1826) after the new model, took their place. Those 
that continued were changed in character, and a new unity 
was estabhshed throughout the German university world. By 
1850 exact scientific research, in both libraries and laboratories, 
and a sober search for truth, had become the watchword of all the 
German universities. In consequence they naturally assumed a 
world leadership, and were frequented by students from many 
lands. Especially has the United States been influenced in its 
university development by the large number of university teach- 
ers who received their specialized training in the German univer- 
sities during the latter half of the nineteenth century. 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 321 




A two-class state school system created. We thus see that 
Prussia by 181 5, clearly by 1825, had taken over education from 
the Church and made of it an instru- 
ment of the State to serve State ends. 
For the masses there was the Volks- 
schule, superseding the old religious 
vernacular school and clearly designed 
to create an intelligent but obedient 
and patriotic citizenship for the Father- 
land, and in this school the great ma- 
jority of the children of the State re- 
ceived their education for citizenship 
and for life. This was for both sexes, 
and was entirely a German school. At- 
tendance upon this school was made 
compulsory, and beyond this some con- 
tinuation education early began to be 
provided (Rs. 274, §6; 275 d; 276, 
§ 15). Within the past half-century 
continuation education, especially along 
vocational lines, as we shall point 
out in a subsequent chapter, has re- 
ceived in German lands a very re- 
markable development. To insure that 
this school should serve the State in 
the way desired, Teachers' Seminaries, 
for the training of Volksschule teachers, were from the first 
made a feature of the new state system. 

For those who were to form the official and directing class of 
society — a closely limited, almost entirely male, intellectual 
aristocracy — education in separate classical schools, with uni- 
versity or professional training superimposed, was provided, and 
this type of training offered a very thorough preparation for a 
small and a carefully selected class. Out of this class the leaders 
of Germany for a century have been drawn. For this classical 
school also the universities were early directed to prepare a well- 
educated body of teachers. The Prussian plan was followed in 
all its essentials in the other German States, so that the drawing 
given (Fig. 76) was true for Germany as a whole, as well as for 
Prussia, up at least to 19 14. 

New nineteenth-century tendencies manifested. In this early 



Fig. 76. The Prussian 

State School System 

Created 

Compare with Fig. 93 and 
note the difiference between a 
European two-class school sys- 
tem and the American demo- 
cratic educational ladder. 



322 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

evolution of the Prussian state school systems we find two promi- 
nent nineteenth-century ideas expressing themselves. The first 
is the new conception of the State as not merely a government 
organized to secure national safety and protection from invasion, 
but rather an organization of the people to promote public wel- 
fare and realize a moral and poHtical ideal. To this end state 
control of the whole range of education, to enable the State to 
promote intellectual and moral and social progress along Knes use- 
ful to the State, became a necessity, and some form of this educa- 
tion, in the interests of the public welfare, must now be extended 
to all. Though France and the new American nation gave earlier 
pohtical expression to this new conception of the State, it was in 
Prussia that the idea attained its earliest concrete and for long its 
most complete realization. Seeing further and more clearly than 
other nations the possibihties of education, the practical workers 
of Prussia, and after them the other German States, took over 
education as a function of the State for the propagation of the na- 
tional ideas and the promotion of the national culture. 

So well was this system and plan working that, had the Imperial 
Government not been so impatient of that slower but surer prog- 
ress by peaceful means, and staked all on a gambler's throw, in 
another half-century the German nation might have held the 
world largely in fee. As it is, the results which the Germans at- 
tained by reason of definite aims and definite methods are both an 
encouragement and a warning to other nations. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Point out the extent of the educational reorganization which resulted 
from the reform work begun at Halle. 

2. How do you explain the very early German interest in compulsory school 
attendance, when such was unknown elsewhere in Europe? 

3. Compare the Prussian Regulations of 1737 with what was common 
at that time in practice in the parishes of the American Colonies. 

4. Show the wisdom of the early Prussian kings in working at school reform 
through the Church. Could they well have worked otherwise? Why? 

5. How do you explain such a slow development of a professional teaching 
body in Prussia, when all the state influences had for so long been favor- 
able to educational development? 

6. Show that the Oberschulcollegium Board marked the beginnings of a 
State Ministry for Education for Prussia. 

7. Show that the spirit of the Prussian leaders, after 1806, was a further 
expansion of the German national feeUng which arose in the Period of 
Enhghtenment. 

8. Show that the reorganization of elementary education, and the creation 
of the University of Berlin, were almost equally important events for the 
future of German lands. 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN PRUSSIA 323 

^' w^r/'?''-^ \^^ "^""'^ of Prussia, in using the schools for national ends 
was. (a) m keeping with the work of the French RevoUitionarv leaders 

FredifLThe^Grelt"'^^ ^^^^"^^^^ '' ''^ ^^^^^^^ -^^ '^-e b^ 

10. Show how the universities of Germany early took the lead of the univer- 
s^ties of the world, and the influence of this fact on national progress 

11. Enumerate the new nineteenth-century tendencies observable in the 
early educational organization in Prussia 

12. Explain the marked mid-nineteenth-century reaction to educational 
development which set in. uu^duuiiai 

13. Explain the early and marked welcome accorded science-studv in Ger- 
man lands. 

'"* S'olhLVnadonr''^' ^'""""'^ """^"'^ "^ educational leadership, ahead 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections illustrative 
of the contents of this chapter, are reproduced • ^^"^ns, illustrative 

273. Barnard: The Organizing Work of Frederick William I. 

274. Prussia: The School Code of 1763 

275. Prussia: The Silesian School Code of 176=; 

276. Austria: The School Code of 1774. 

277. Fichte: Addresses to the German Nation 

278. Mann: The Ppssian Elementary Teacher and his Training 

279. Dinter: Prussian Schools and Teachers as he found them ^' 

280. Cousin: Report on Education in Prussia 

281. Mann: The Military Aspect of Prussian Education. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

♦Alexander Thomas The Prussian Elementary Schools 

'7^1fw:vol. ^^^^^ - ^--^-' ' - '^---^ Journal 
Barnard Henry. German Teachers and Educators 

Friedel V. H. The German School as a War Nursery. 

Rein's £;;.y./.^a^/../... //i; JLI j.r^^f,^, A^"' translated from 
Paulsen, Fr. German Education, Past and PresLt: 
♦Paulsen, Fr. The German Universities. 
Russell, James. German Higher Schools. 
beeley, J. R. Life and Times of Stein, vol i 



CHAPTER XXIII 
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE 

Lines of development marked out by the Revolution. The 

Revolution proved very disastrous to the old forms of education 
in France. The old educational foundations, accumulated 
through the ages, were swept away, and the teaching congrega- 
tions, which had provided the people with whatever education 
they had enjoyed, were driven from the soil. The ruin of educa- 
tional and religious institutions in Russia under the recent rule 
of the Bolshevists is perhaps comparable to what happened in 
France. Many plans were proposed by the Revolutionary philos- 
ophers and enthusiasts, as we have seen (chapter xx), to replace 
what had once been and to provide better than had once been 
done for the educational needs of the masses of the people, but 
with results that were small in comparison with the expectations 
of the legislative assemblies which considered or approved them. 
Nevertheless, the directions of future progress in educational 
organization were clearly marked out before Napoleon came to 
power, and the work which he did was largely an extension, and a 
reduction to working order, of what had been proposed or estab- 
lished by the enthusiasts of the pre-revolutionary and revolution- 
ary periods. At the time of the Revolution the State definitely 
took over the control of education from the Church, and the work 
of Napoleon and those who came after him was to organize public 
instruction into a practical state-controlled system. 

In effecting this organization, the preceding discussions of edu- 
cation as a function of the State and the desirable forms of organi- 
zation to follow all bore important fruit, and the forms finally 
adopted embodied not only the ideas contained in the legislation 
of the revolutionary assembhes, but also the pecuHar adminis- 
trative genius of France — that desire for uniformity in organi- 
zation and administration — and hence stand in contrast to the 
state educational organizations worked out about the same time 
in German lands. The German States, as we have seen, had for 
long been working toward state control of education, but when 
this was finally attained they still permitted a large degree of 
local initiative and control. The French, on the contrary made 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE 325 

the transition in a few years, and the system of state control 
which they estabHshed provided for uniformity, and for central- 
ized supervision and inspection in the hands of the State. 

In consequence, Prussia and the other German States early 
achieved a form of state educational organization which empha- 
sized local interest and the spirit of the instruction, whereas 
France created an administrative organization which emphasized 
central control and, for the time, the form rather than the spirit 
of instruction. This was well pointed out by Victor Cousin 
(R. 280), in contrasting conditions in Prussia with those existing 
in France. 

Napoleon begins the organization of education. In 1799 Na- 
poleon became First Consul and master of France, and in 1804 
France, by vote, changed from a Repubhc to an Empire, with 
Napoleon as first Emperor. Until his banishment to Saint He- 
lena (181 5) he was master of France. A man of large executive 
capacity and an organizing genius of great ability, whether he 
turned to army organization, governmental organization, the 
codification of the laws, or the organization of education, Napo- 
leon's practical and constructive mind quickly reduced parts to 
their proper places in a well-regulated scheme. Shortly after he 
became Consul he took up, among other things, the matter of 
educational organization. 

In 1802 Napoleon first turned his attention to a general organ- 
ization of public instruction by directing Count de Fourcroy, a 
distinguished chemist who had been a teacher in the Polytechnic 
School, and whom he appointed Director of Public Instruction, 
to draw up, according to his ideas, an organizing law on the sub- 
ject. This became the Law of 1802. It was divided into nine 
chapters. 

I. Primary schools. The chapter on primary schools virtually 
reenacted the Law of 1795 (R. 258 b). Each commune was re- 
quired to furnish a schoolhouse and a home for the teacher. The 
teacher was to be responsible to local authorities, while the super- 
vision of the school was placed under the prefect of the Depart- 
ment. The instruction was to be limited to reading, writing, and 
arithmetic, and the legal authorities were enjoined " to watch that 
the teachers did not carry their instructions beyond these limits." 
The teacher was to be paid entirely from tuition fees, though one 
fifth of the pupils were to be provided with free schooling. The 
State gave nothing toward the support of the primary schools. 



326 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The interest of Napoleon was not in primary or general educa- 
tion, but rather in training pupils for scientific and technical effi- 
ciency, and youths of superior abihty for the professions and for 
executive work in the kind of government he had imposed upon 
France. To this end secondary and special education were made 
particular functions of the State, while primary education was 
left to the communes to provide as they saw fit. They could pro- 
vide schools and the parents could pay for the teacher, or not, as 
they might decide. There was no compulsion to enforce the re- 
quirement of a primary school, and no state aid to stimulate local 
effort to create one. In consequence not many state primary 
schools were established, and primary education remained, for 
another generation, in the hands of private teachers and the 
Church. 

2. Secondary schools. Chapters iii and iv of the Law of 1802 
made full provision for two types of secondary schools — the 
Communal Colleges and the Lycees — to replace the Central 
Higher Schools established in 1795 (p. 284). The Law of 1802 
now replaced them with two types of residential secondary schools, 
in which the youth of the country, under careful supervision and 
discipline, might prepare for entrance to the higher special schools. 
These fixed the fines of future French development in secondary 
schools. 

The standard secondary school now became known as the 
Lycee. These institutions corresponded to the Colleges under the 
old regime, of which the College of Guyenne (R. 136) was a type. 
The instruction was to include the ancient languages, rhetoric, 
logic, ethics, belles-lettres, mathematics, and physical science, 
with some provision for additional instruction in modern lan- 
guages and drawing. The funds for maintenance came from 
tuition fees, boarding and rooming income, and state scholar- 
ships, of which six thousand four hundred were provided. 

Besides the Lycees, every school established by a municipality, 
or kept by an individual, which gave instruction in Latin, French, 
geography, history, and mathematics was designated as a sec- 
ondary school, or Communal College. These institutions usually 
offered but a partial Lycee course, and were tuition schools, being 
patronized by many parents whose tastes forbade the sending of 
their children to the lower-class primary schools. For the super- 
vision of all these institutions the Director General of Public In- 
struction appointed three Superintendents of Secondary Studies; 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE 327 

and for the work of the schools he outh'ned the courses of instruc- 
tion in detail, laid down the rules of administration, prepared and 
selected the textbooks, and appointed the "professors." 

Special or Higher Schools. The chapter of the Law of 1802 
on Special Schools made provision for the creation of the follow- 
ing special "faculties" or schools for higher education for France: 

3 medical schools, to replace the Schools of Health of 1794 (p. 283). 
10 law schools; increased to 12 in 1804 (Date of Code Napoleon, 

p. 518). 

4 schools of natural history, natural philosophy, and chemistry. 
2 schools of mechanical and chemical arts. 

I mathematical school. 

I school of geography, history, and political economy. 

A fourth school of art and design. 

Professors of astronomy for the observatories. 

In 1803 the School of Arts and Trades was added (R. 282), and in 
1804, after Napoleon had signed the Concordat with the Pope, 
thus restoring the CathoHc religion (abolished 1791), schools of 
theology were added to the above Hst. 

We have here, clearly outhned, the main paths along which 
French state educational organization had been tending and was 
in future to follow. The State had dehnitely dispossessed the 
Church as the controlling agency in education, and had definitely 
taken over the school as an instrument for its own ends. Though 
primary education had been temporarily left to the communes, 
and was soon to be turned over in large part to be handled by the 
Church for a generation longer, the supervision was to remain 
with the State. The middle-class elements were well provided 
for in the new secondary schools, and these were now subject to 
complete supervision by the State. For higher education groups 
of Special Schools, or Teaching Faculties, replaced the older uni- 
versities, which were not re-created until after the coming of the 
Third Republic (187 1). The dominant characteristics of the 
state educational system thus created, aside from its emphasis on 
secondary and higher education, were its uniformity and central- 
ized control. These characteristics were further stressed in the 
reorganization of 1808, and have remained prominent in French 
educational organization ever since. 

Creation of the University of France. By 1806 Napoleon was 
ready for a further and more complete organization of the pubHc 
instruction of the State, and to this end the following law was 
now enacted (May 10, 1806): 



328 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Sec. I. There will be formed, under the name of Imperial Univer- 
sity, a body exclusively commissioned with teaching and public educa- 
tion throughout the Empire. 

Sec. 2. The members of this corporation can contract civil, special, 
and temporary obligations. 

Sec. 3. The organization of this corps will be given in the form of a 
law to the legislative body in the session of 18 10. 

In 1808, without the formality of further legislation, Napoleon 
issued an Imperial Decree creating the University of France. 
This was not only Napoleon's most remarkable educational crea- 
tion, but it was an administrative and governing organization for 
education so in harmony with French spirit and French govern- 
mental ideas that it has persisted ever since, though changed 
somewhat in form with time. 

Unlike the University of Berlin (p. 319), created a year later, 
this was not a teaching university at all, but instead a governing, 
examining, and disbursing corporation, presided over by a Grand 
Master and a Council of twenty- six members, all appointed by 
the Emperor. This Council decided all matters of importance, 
and exercised supervision and control over education of all kinds, 
from the lowest to the highest, throughout France. 

The Special Higher Schools were also continued, and to the list 
given (p. 284) Napoleon added (1808) a Superior Normal School 
(R. 283) to train graduates of the Lycees for teaching. This 
opened in 18 10, with thirty-seven students and a two-year course 
of instruction, and in 181 5 a third year of method and practice 
work was added. With some varying fortunes, this institution 
has continued to the present. 

The new interest in primary education. The period from 181 5 
to 1830 in France is known as the Restoration. Louis XVIII was 
made King and ruled until his death in 1824, and his brother 
Charles X who followed until deposed by the Revolution of 1830. 
Though a representative of the old regime was recalled on the 
abdication of Napoleon, the great social gains of the Revolution 
were retained. There was no odious restoration of privilege and 
absolute monarchy. Frenchmen continued to be equal before 
the law; a form of constitutional government was provided; the 
right of petition was recognized; and the system of public instruc- 
tion as Napoleon had organized it continued almost unchanged. 
For a decade at least there was less political reaction in France 
than in other continental States. 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE 329 

In matters of education, what had been provided was retained, 
and there seems (R. 284) to have been an increasing demand for 
additions and improvements, particularly in the matter of pri- 
mary and middle-class schools, and a willingness on the part of 
the communes to provide such advantages. Some small progress 
had been made in meeting these demands, before 1830. 

In 18 1 6 a small treasury grant (50,000 francs) was made for 
school books, model schools, and deserving teachers in the pri- 
mary schools, and in 1829 this sum was increased to 300,000 
francs. In 18 18 the " Brothers of the Christian Schools" were 
permitted to be certificated for teaching on merely presenting their 
Letter of Obedience from the head of their Order, and in 1824 
the cantonal school committees were remodeled so as to give the 
bishops and clergy entire control of all Catholic primary schools. 
In 181 7 there were thirty-six Lycees, receiving an annual state 
subsidy of 812,000 francs; thirty years later the fifty-four in ex- 
istence were receiving 1,500,000 francs. From 1822 to 1829 the 
Higher Normal School was suppressed, and twelve elementary 
normal schools were created in its stead. 

Early work under the Monarchy of 1830. In July, 1830, 
Charles X attempted to suppress constitutional liberty, and the 
people rose in revolt and deposed him, and gave the crown to a 
new King, Louis-Philippe. He ruled until deposed by the crea- 
tion of the Second Republic, in 1848. The '' Monarchy of 1830" 
was supported by the leading thinkers of the time, prominent 
among whom were Thiers and Guizot, and one of the first affairs 
of State to v/hich they turned their attention was the extension 
downward of the system of public instruction. The first steps 
were an increase of the state grant for primary schools (1830) to a 
million francs a year; the overthrow of the control by the priests 
of the cantonal school committees (1830); the abolition (1831) of 
the exemption of the religious orders from the examinations for 
teaching certificates; and the creation (1830-31) of thirty new 
normal schools. 

The next step was to send (1831) M. Victor Cousin — Director 
of the restored Higher Normal School of France — on a mission 
to the German States, and in particular to Prussia, to study and 
report on the system of elementary education, teacher training, and 
educational organization and administration which had done 
so much for its regeneration. So convincing was Cousin's Report 
that, despite bitter national antipathies, it carried conviction 




330 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

throughout France. ''It demonstrated to the government and 
the people the immense superiority of all the German States, 
even the most insignificant duchy, over any 
and every Department of France, in all 
that concerned institutions of primary and 
secondary education." Cousin pronounced 
the school law of Prussia (R. 280) "the 
most comprehensive and perfect legislative 
measure regarding primary education" 
with which he was acquainted, and de- 
clared his conviction that "in the present 
state of things, a law concerning primary 
education is indispensable in France." 
The chief question, he continued, was "how 
^^^' 77 to procure a good one in a country where 

(1702-1867)^ there is a total absence of all precedents 

and experience in so grave a matter." 
Cousin then pointed out the bases, derived from Prussian experi- 
ence and French historical development, on which a satisfactory 
law could be framed (R. 284 a-c) ; the desirability of local con- 
trol and liberty in instruction (R. 284 f-g) ; and strongly recom- 
mended the organization of higher primary schools (a new crea- 
tion: first recommended (1792) by Condorcet, p. 281) as well 
as primary schools (R. 284 e) to meet the educational needs of 
the middle classes of the population of France. 

The Law of 1833. On the basis of Cousin's Report a bill, mak- 
ing the maintenance of primary schools obligatory on every com- 
mune ; providing for higher primary schools in the towns and cit- 
ies; additional normal schools to train teachers for these schools; a 
corps of primary-school inspectors, to represent the State; and 
normal training and state certification required to teach in any 
primary school, was prepared. In an address to the Chamber of 
Deputies, in introducing the bill (1832), M. Guizot, the newly 
appointed Minister for Public Instruction, set forth the history of 
primary instruction in France up to 1832 (R. 285 a) ; described the 
two grades of primary instruction to be created (R. 285 b) ; and, 
emphasizing Cousin's maxim that "the schoolmaster makes the 
school," dwelt on the necessity for normal training and state cer- 
tification for all primary teachers (R. 285 c). In preparing the 
bill it was decided not to follow the revolutionary ideas of free 
instruction, by lay and state teachers, or to enforce compulsion 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE 331 



to attend, and for these omissions M. Guizot, in his Memoires 
(R. 286), gives some very interesting reasons. 

The bill became a law the following year, and is known 
officially as the Law of 1833. 
This Law forms the founda- 
tions upon which the French 
system of national elemen- 
tary education has been de- 
veloped, as the Napoleonic 
Law of 1802 and the Decree 
of 1808 have formed the basis 
for secondary education and 
French state~administrative 
organization. A primary 
school was to be established 




Elementary- 



Secondary 



Fig. 78. Outline of the Main 

Features of the FREifcH 

State School System 



in every commune, which was 
to provide the building, pay a 
fixed minimum salary to the 
teacher, and where able main- 
tain the school. The State re- 
served the right to fix the pay 
of the teacher, and even to 
approve his appointment. A 
tuition fee was to be paid 
for attendance, but those who 
could not pay were to be pro- 
vided with free places. The 
primary schools were to give 

instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, the weights and meas- 
ures, the French language, and morals and religion. The higher 
primary schools were to build on these subjects, and to offer in- 
struction in geometry and its applications, Hnear drawing, sur- 
veying, physical science, natural history, history, geography, and 
music, and were to emphasize instruction in "the history and 
geography of France, and in the elements of science, as they apply 
it every day in the office, the workshop, and the field." These 
latter were the Biirgerschulen, recommended by Cousin (R. 284 e) 
on the basis of his study of Prussian education. 

In sending out a copy of the Law to the primary, teachers of 
France, M. Guizot enclosed a personal letter to each, informing 
him as to what the government expected of him in the new work 



332 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

(R. 287). During the four years that M. Guizot remained Min- 
ister of PubKc Instruction he rendered a remarkable service, 
well described by Matthew Arnold (R. 288), in awakening his 
countrymen to the new problem of popular education then 
before them. 

The results under the Law of 1833 were large, and the subse- 
quent legislation under the monarchy of 1830 was important. 
For the first time in French history an earnest effort was made to 
provide education suited to the needs of the great mass of the peo- 
ple, and the marked development of schools which ensued showed 
how eagerly they embraced the opportunities offered their chil- 
dren, though the schooling was neither compulsory nor gratui- 
tous. 

The period from 1848 to 1870 in France was a period of middle- 
class rule, and reaction in education as in government, and no 
real progress in advancing education was made. Instead religious 
schools were favored, some of the earlier leaders were sent into 
exile, and private schools were given full freedom to compete 
with the state schools. ' 

Religious instruction prospered under the Second Empire, and 
the state primary schools lost in importance. The Lycees con- 
tinued largely as classical institutions, though after 1865 the 
crowding of the rising sciences began to dispute the supremacy of 
classical studies. There were, however, many voices of discon- 
tent, particularly from exiled teachers (R. 289) , and the way was 
rapidly being prepared for the creation of a stronger and better 
state school system as soon as political conditions were propitious. 

Revolutionary ideals at last realized. With the creation of the 
Third Republic, in 1870, a change from the old conditions and old 
attitudes took place. Up to about 1879 the new government was 
in the control of those who were at heart sympathetic with the 
old conditions, but were forced to accept the new; from 1879 to 
1890 was a transition period; and since 1890 the Republic has 
grown steadily in strength and regained its position among the 
great powers of the world. The first few years of the new Repub- 
lic were devoted to paying the Prussian indemnity and clearing 
the soil of France of German armies, but, after about 1875, edu- 
cation became a great national interest among the leaders of 
France. France saw, somewhat as did Prussia after 1806, the 
necessity for creating a strong state system of primary, secondary, 
and higher schools to train the youth of the land in the principles 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN FRANCE 333 

of the Republic, strengthen the national spirit, advance the wel- 
fare of the State, and protect it from dangers both within and 
without. 

Millions were put into the building of schoolhouses (1878-88); 
new normal schools were estabhshed; a normal school for women 
was created in each of the eighty-seven departments of France; 
the academic and superior councils of pubHc instruction were 
reorganized to eliminate clerical influences (1881); religious in- 
struction was replaced by moral and civic instruction (R. 290) ; 
and clerical "Letters of Obedience" were no longer accepted, 
and all teachers were required to be certificated by the State. 
The Law of 1881, eliminating instruction in rehgion from the 
elementary schools, was followed, in 1886, by a law providing for 
the gradual replacement of clerical by lay teachers. In 1904, 
the teaching congregations of France were suppressed. All ele- 
mentary education now became public, free, compulsory, and 
secular, and teachers were required to be neutral in religious 
matters. 

Since 187 1, also, technical and scientific education has been 
emphasized; the primary and superior-primary schools have been 
made free (1881) and compulsory (1882); classes for adults have 
been begun generally; the state aid for schools has been very 
greatly increased; lycees and colleges for women have been created 
(1880); the lycees modernized in their instruction; and the re- 
organization and reestabhshment of a series of fifteen state uni- 
versities of a modern type, begun in 1885, was completed in 1896. 
The reorganization and expansion of education in France since 
1875 is a wonderful example of republican interest and energy, 
and is along entirely different lines from those followed, since the 
same date, in German lands. 

After the lapse of nearly a century we now see the French 
Revolutionary ideas of gratuity, obligation, and secularization 
finally put into effect, and the state system of pubHc instruction 
outlined by Condorcet (p. 281), in 1792, at last an accomplished 
fact. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Show how the Revolution marked out the lines of future educational 
evolution for France. 

2. Explain why France and Italy evolved a school system so much more 
centralized than did other European nations. 

3. Explain Napoleon's lack of interest in primary education, in view of 
the needs of France in his day. 



334 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

4. Show that Napoleon was right, time and circumstances considered, in 
placing the state emphasis on the types of education he favored. 

5. Explain why middle-class education should have received such special 
attention in Cousin's Report, and in the Law of 1833. 

6. Was the course of instruction provided for the primary schools in 1833, 
times and needs considered, a liberal one, or otherwise? Why? 

7. Compare the 1833 and the 1850 courses. 

8. Explain why all forms of education in France should have experienced 
such a marked expansion and development after 1875. 

9. Explain why great military disasters, for the past 150 years, have nearly 
always resulted in national educational reorganization. 

10. Appraise the work and the permanent influence of Napoleon. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are re- 
produced: 

282. Le Brum FouncUng of the School of Arts and Trades. 

283. Jourdain: RefouncUng of the Superior Normal School. 

284. Cousin: Recommendations for Education in France. 

285. Guizot: Address on the Law of 1833. 

286. Guizot: Principles underlying the Law of 1833. 

287. Guizot: Letter to the Primary Teachers of France. 

288. Arnold: Guizot's Work as Minister of Public Instruction. 

289. Quinet: A Lay School for a Lay Society. 

290. Ferry: Moral and Civic Instruction replaces the Religious. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Arnold, Matthew. Popular Education in France. 
*Arnold, Matthew. Schools and Universities on the Continent. 
*Barnard, Henry. National Education in Europe. 

Barnard, Henry. American Journal oj Education, vol. XX. 

Compayre, G. History of Pedagogy, chapter xxi. 
*Farrington, Fr. E. The Public Primary School System of France. 
*Farrington, Fr. E. French Secondary Schools. 

Guizot, F. P. G. Memoires, Extracts from, covering work as Minister 
of Public Instruction, 1832-37, in Barnard's American Journal of 
Education, vol. xi, pp. 254-81, 357-99. 



CHAPTER XXIV 

THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN 

ENGLAND 

I. THE CHARITABLE-VOLUNTARY BEGLNNINGS 

English progress a slow but peaceful evolution. The begin- 
nings of national educational organization in England were 
neither so simple nor so easy as in the other lands we have de- 
scribed. So far this was in part due to the long-established idea, 
on the part of the small ruling class, that education was no busi- 
ness of the State; in part to the deeply ingrained conception as to 
the religious purpose of all instruction; in part to the fact that the 
controUing upper classes had for long been in possession of an 
educational system which rendered satisfactory service in prepar- 
ing leaders for both Church and State; and in part — probably 
in large part — to the fact that national evolution in England, 
since the time of the Civil War (1642-49) has been a slow and 
peaceful growth, though accompanied by much hard thinking and 
vigorous parliamentary fighting. Since the Reformation (1534- 
39) and the Puritan uprising led by Cromwell (1642-49), no civil 
strife has convulsed the land, destroyed old institutions, and 
forced rapid changes in old estabhshed practices. Neither has 
the country been in danger from foreign invasion since that mem- 
orable week in July, 1588, when Drake destroyed the Spanish 
Armada and made the future of England as a world power 
secure. 

English educational evolution has in consequence been slow, 
and changes and progress have come only in response to much 
pressure, and usually as a reluctant concession to avoid more seri- 
ous trouble. A strong English characteristic has been the ability 
to argue rather than fight out questions of national policy ; to ex- 
hibit marked tolerance of the opinions of others during the dis- 
cussion; and finally to recognize enough of the proponents' point 
of view to be wiUing to make concessions sufficient to arrive at 
an agreement. This has resulted in a slow but a peaceful evo- 
lution, and this slow and peaceful evolution has for long been 
the dominant characteristic of the political, social, and educa- 
tional progress of the Enghsh people. The whole history of 



336 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the two centuries of evolution toward a national system of edu- 
cation is a splendid illustration of this essentially English char- 
acteristic. 

Eighteenth-century educational efforts. England, it will be 
remembered (chapter xix, § iii), had early made marked progress 
in both political and religious liberty. Ahead of any other people 
we find there the beginnings of democratic liberty, popular en- 
lightenment, freedom of the press, religious toleration, social re- 
form, and scientific and industrial progress. All these influences 
awakened in England, earUer than in any other European nation, 
a rather general desire to be able to read (R. 170), and by the 
opening of the eighteenth century we find the beginnings of a char- 
itable and philanthropic movement on the part of the churches 
and the upper classes to extend a knowledge of the elements of 
learning to the poorer classes of the population. 

The Charity-SchooI system. Most important *of all was the 
organization, by groups of individuals (R. 237) and by Societies 
(S.P.C.K.; p. 240) formed for the purpose, and maintained by 
subscription (R. 240), collections (R. 291), and foundation in- 
comes, of an extensive and well-organized system of Charity- 
Schools (p. 240). The ''Society for the Promotion of Christian 
Knowledge" dates from the year 1699, and the *' Society for the 
Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts" from 1701. The 
first worked at home, and the second in the overseas colonies. 
Both did much to provide schools for poor boys and girls, furnish- 
ing them with clothing and instruction (R. 292), and training 
them in reading, writing, spelling, counting, cleanliness, proper 
behavior, sewing and knitting (girls), and in ''the Rules and 
Principles of the Christian ReKgion as professed and taught in 
the Church of England ' ' (R. 238 b) . The Charity-School idea was 
in a sense an application of the Joint-stock-company principle to 
the organization and maintenance of an extensive system of 
schools for the education of the children of the poor. The upper 
classes now united to provide, as part of a great organized char- 
ity and under carefully selected teachers (R. 238 a), for the more 
promising children of their poorer neighbors, the elements of that 
education which they themselves had enjoyed. 

The movement spread rapidly over England (p. 241), and soon 
developed into a great national effort to raise the level of intelli- 
gence of the masses of the English people. Thousands of persons 
gave their services as directors, organizers, and teachers. Trav- 



-NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 337 

eling superintendents were employed. A rudimentary form of 
teacher- training was begun. 

Unlike the German States, where the State and the Church and 
the school had all worked together from the days of the Reforma- 
tion on, the English had never known such a conception. The 
efforts, though, of the educated few, in the eighteenth and early 
nineteenth centuries, to extend the elements of learning, order, 
piety, cleanliness, and proper behavior to the children of the 
masses, formed an important substitute for the action by the 
Church-State which was so characteristic a feature of Teutonic 
lands. 

We see in these eighteenth-century efforts the origin of what 
became known in England as "the voluntary system," and upon 
this voluntary support of education — private, parochial, chari- 
table — the English people for long rehed. 

The Sunday-School movement. One other voluntary eight- 
eenth-century movement of importance in the history of English 
educational development should be mentioned here, as it formed 
the connecting link between the parochial-charity-school move- 
ment of the eighteenth century and the philanthropic period of 
the educational reformers of the early nineteenth. This was the 
Sunday-School movement, first tried by John Wesley in Savan- 
nah, in 1737, but not introduced into England until 1763. The 
idea amounted to little, though, until practically worked out anew 
(1780) by Robert Raikes, a printer of Gloucester, and described 
by him (1783) in his Gloucester Journal (R. 293), after he had ex- 
perimented with it for three years. His printed description of 
the Sunday-School idea gave a national impulse to the move- 
ment, and Sunday Schools were soon estabHshed all over England 
to take children off the streets on Sunday and provide them with 
some form of secular and religious instruction. 

The rapid growth of population in the towns, following the 
beginnings of factory life (p. 245), had created new social and 
economic problems, and the neglect of children in the manufac- 
turing towns had shocked many thinking persons. The way 
in which parents and children, freed from hard labor in the fac- 
tories on Sundays, abandoned themselves to vice, drunkenness, 
and profanity caused many, among them Raikes himself (R. 293), 
to inquire if "something could not be done" to turn into re- 
spectable men and women " the Httle heathen of the neighbor- 
hood." The Sunday School was his answer, and the answer of 



338 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



many all over England. The moral and religious influence of 
these schools was important, and the instruction in reading and 
writing, meager as it was, filled a real need 
of the time. 

Other voluntary schools; ** Ragged 
Schools.** The Charity Schools and the 
Sunday Schools were the two most conspic- 
uous of the voluntary-organization type of 
undertakings for providing the poor children 
of England with the elements of secular and 
religious education. Many other organiza- 
tions of an educational and charitable na- 
ture, aided also by many individual efforts, 
too numerous to mention, were formed with 
the same charitable and humanitarian end 
in view. Others, similar in type, charged 
a small fee, and hence were of the priv- 
ate-adventure type. Sunday Schools, day 
schools, evening schools, children's churches, 
bands of hope, clothing clubs, messenger bri- 
gades, shoeblack brigades, orphans' schools, 
reformatory schools, industrial schools, rag- 
ged schools — ■ these were some of the types 
that arose. Upon many such forms of ir- 
regular schools England depended before 
the days of national organization. 




Fig. 79. A Ragged- 
School Pupil 
(From a photograph of 
a boy on entering the 
school; later changed 
into a respectable trades- 
man. From Guthrie) 



II. THE PERIOD OF PHILANTHROPIC EFFORT (1800-33) 

Origin of mutual or monitorial instruction. In 1797 Dr. An- 
drew Bell, a clergyman in the Established Church, published the 
results of his experiment in the use of monitors in India. The 
idea attracted attention, and the plan was successfully introduced 
into a number of charity-schools. About the same time (1798) a 
young Quaker schoolmaster, Joseph Lancaster by name, was led 
independently to a similar discovery of the advantages of using 
monitors, by reason of his needing assistance in his school and be- 
ing too poor to pay for additional teachers. In 1803 he pub- 
Hshed an account of his plan. The two plans were quite similar, 
attracted attention from the first, and schools formed after one or 
the other of the plans were soon organized all over England. 

The mutual instruction idea spread to other lands — • France, 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 339 

Belgium, Holland, Denmark — and seems to have been tried 
even in German lands. In France and Belgium it was experi- 
mented with for a time because of its cheapness, but was soon 
discarded because of its defects. In Teutonic lands, where the 





Rev. Andrew Bell (1753-1832) Joseph Lancaster (1778-1838) 
Fig. 80. The Creators of the Monitorial System 



much better Pestalozzian ideas had become established, the 
monitorial system made practically no headway. It was in the 
United States, of all countries outside of England, that the idea 
met with most ready acceptance. 

The system of mutual or monitorial instruction. The great 
merit, aside from being cheap, of the mutual or monitorial system 
of instruction lay in that it represented a marked advance in 
school organization over the older individual method of instruc- 
tion, with its accompanying waste of time and schoolroom dis- 
order. Under the individual method only a small number of 
pupils could be placed under the control of one teacher, and the 
expense for such instruction made general education almost pro- 
hibitive. Pestalozzi, to be sure, had worked out in Switzerland 
the modern class-system of instruction, and following develop- 
mental lines in teaching, but of this the English were not only 
ignorant, but it called for a degree of pedagogical skill which their 
teachers did not then possess. Bell and Lancaster now evolved 
a plan whereby one teacher, assisted by a number of the brighter 
pupils whom they designated as monitors, could teach from two 



340 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




hundred to a thousand pupils in one school (R. 297). The pic- 
ture of Lancaster's London school (Figure 81) shows 365 pupils 
seated. The pupils were sorted into rows, and to each row was 
assigned a clever boy (monitor) to act as an assistant teacher. 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 341 

A. common number for each monitor to look after was ten. The 
teacher first taught these monitors a lesson from a printed card, 
and then each monitor took his row to a " station " about the wall 
and proceeded to teach the other boys what he had just learned. 
At first used only for teaching reading and the Catechism, the plan 
was soon extended to the teaching of writing, arithmetic, and 
spelling, and later on to instruction in higher branches. The sys- 
tem was very popular from about 1810 to 1830, but by 1840 its 
popularity had waned. 

Such schools were naturally highly organized , the organization 
being largely mechanical (R. 298) . Lancaster, in particular, was 




Fig. 82. Monitors teaching Reading at "Stations" 

Three "drafts" of ten each, with their toes to the semicircles painted on 
the floor, are being taught by monitors from lessons suspended on the wall. 

an organizing genius. The Manuals of Instruction gave complete 
directions for the organization and management of monitorial 
schools, the details of recitation work, use of apparatus, order, 
position of pupils at their work, and classification being minutely 
laid down. By carefully studying and following these directions 
any reasonably intelligent person could soon learn to become a 
successful teacher in a monitorial school. 

The^schools, mechanical as they now seem, marked a great im- 
provement over the individual method upon which schoolmasters 
for centuries had wasted so much of their own and their pupils' 
time. In place of earlier idleness, inattention, and disorder. Bell 
and Lancaster introduced activity, emulation, order, and a kind 
of military discipline which was of much value to the type of 
children attending these schools. Lancaster's biographer, Sal- 
mon, has written of the system that so thoroughly was the instruc- 
tion worked out that the teacher had only to organize, oversee, 
reward, punish, and inspire: 

When a child was admitted a monitor assigned him his class; while 



342 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

he remained, a monitor taught him (with nine other pupils) ; when he 
was absent, one monitor ascertained the fact, and another found out 
the reason; a monitor examined him periodically, and, when he made 
progress, a monitor promoted him; a monitor ruled the writing paper; 
a monitor had charge of slates and books ; and a monitor-general looked 
after all the other monitors. Every monitor wore a leather ticket, 
gilded and lettered, '' Monitor of the First Class," " Reading Monitor 
of the Second Class," etc. 

Value of the system in awakening interest. The monitorial 
system of instruction, coming at the time it did, exerted a very 
important influence in awakening interest in and a sentiment for 
schools. It increased the number of people who possessed the 
elements of an education; made schools much more talked about; 
and aroused thought and provoked discussion on the question of 
education. It did much toward making people see the advan- 
tages of a certain amount of schooling, and be willing to contrib- 
ute to its support. Under the plans previously in use education 
had been a slow and an expensive process, because -it had to be 
carried on by the individual method of instruction, and in quite 
small groups. Under this new plan it was now possible for one 
teacher to instruct 300, 400, 500, or more pupils in a single room, 
and to do it with much better results in both learning and disci- 
pline than the old type of schoolmaster had achieved. 

All at once, comparatively, a new system had been introduced 
which not only improved and popularized, but tremendously 
cheapened education. Lancaster, in his Improvements in Educa- 
tion, gave the annual cost of schooling under his system as only 
seven shillings sixpence ($1.80) per pupil, and this was later de- 
creased to four shillings fivepence ($1.06) as the school was in- 
creased to accommodate a thousand pupils. Under the Bell sys- 
tem the yearly cost per pupil, in a school of five hundred, was only 
four shillings twopence ($1.00), in 1814. In the United States, 
Lancastrian schools cost from $1.22 per pupil in New York, in 
1822, up to $3.00 and $4.00 later on. To prepare skilled mas- 
ters and mistresses for the schools — girls were provided for in 
many places — training or model schools were organized by both 
the national societies, and these represent the beginnings of nor- 
mal-school training in England. 

Infant Schools. Another type of school which became of much 
importance in England, and spread to other lands, was the Infant 
School. This owed its origin to Robert Owen, proprietor of 
the cotton mills at New Lanark, Scotland. Being of a phil- 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 343 

anthropic turn of mind, and believing that man was entirely 
the product of circumstance and environment, he held that it 

was not possible to begin too early in im- ,£^^^^ 

planting right habits and forming char- jUpV^'^bj. 

acter. Poverty and crime, he believed, _^^'/>*l,»> 

were results of errors in the various sys- ^j^^^^^F^ 

tems of education and government. So ^Km^'-^F 

plastic was child nature, that society would ^^^^m^ 

be able to mould itself "into the very ^d^f^^w ™k 

image of rational wishes and desires." ^^^m^^3ijB^^^^ 

That "the infants of any one class in the ''SB \m ^||S!H| 

world may be readily formed into men wilU \ f ilK 

of any other class," was a fundamental •■■!\\ \ ' ■|''| ■ jj 

When he took charge of the mills at New Fig. 83 

Lanark (i 799) he found the usual wretched ^^'-^Y-^'^^'^ 

social conditions of the time. Children 

of five, six, and seven years were bound out to the factory as 
apprentices (R. 242) for a period of nine years. They worked as 
apprentices and helpers in the factories twelve to thirteen hours 
a day,|^and at early manhood were turned free to join the ignorant 
mass of the population. Owen sought to remedy this condition. 
He accordingly opened schools which children might enter at 
three years of age, receiving them into the schools almost as soon 
as they were able to walk, and caring for them while their parents 
were at work. Children under ten he forbade to work in the mills, 
and for these he provided schools. The instruction for the chil- 
dren younger than six was to be "whatever might be supposed 
useful that they could understand," and much was made of sing- 
ing, dancing, and play. Moral instruction was made a prominent 
feature. By 18 14 his work and his schools had become famous. 
In 181 7 he pubhshed a plan for the organization of such industrial 
communities as he conducted. In 18 18 he visited Switzerland, 
and saw Pestalozzi and Fellenberg. 

Unlike the monitorial schools, the Infant Schools were based 
on the idea of small-group work, and were usually conducted in 
harmony with the new psychological conceptions of instruction 
which had been worked out by Pestalozzi, and had by that time 
begun to be introduced into England. The Infant-School idea 
came at an opportune time, as the defects of the mechanical Lan- 
castrian instruction were becoming evident and its popularity 



'344 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

was waning. It gave a new and a somewhat deeper philosophical 
interpretation of the educational process, created a stronger de- 
mand than had before been known for trained teachers, estab- 
lished a preference for women teachers for primary work, and 
tended to give a new dignity to teaching and school work by 
revealing something of a psychological basis for the instruction 
of little children. It also contributed its share toward awakening 
a sentiment for national action. 

Work of the educational societies. The work of the voluntary 
and philanthropic educational societies in estabhshing schools and 
providing teachers and instruction before the days of national 
schools was enormous. Though the State did nothing before 
1833, and httle before 1870, the work of the educational societies 
was large and important. After about 1820-25 the rising interest 
in elementary education expressed itself in the formation of many 
additional societies. Some of these were formed to found and 
support schools, and some engaged primarily in the work of prop- 
aganda in an effort to secure some national action. 

III. THE STRUGGLE FOR NATIONAL EDUCATION 

The parliamentary struggle. During the whole of the eight- 
eenth century Parliament had enacted no legislation relating to 
elementary education, aside from the one Act of 1767 for the 
education of pauper children in London, and the freeing of ele- 
mentary schools. Dissenters, and Catholics, from inhibitions as 
to teaching. In the nineteenth century this attitude was to be 
changed, though slowly, and after three quarters of a century of 
struggle the beginnings of national education were finally to be 
made for England, as they had by then for every other great 
nation. In 1870 the "no-business-of-the-State" attitude toward 
the education of the people, which had persisted from the days of 
the great Elizabeth, was finally and permanently changed. The 
legislative battle began with the first Factory Act of 1802, Whit- 
bread's Parochial Schools Bill of 1807, and Brougham's first 
Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry of 1816 (R. 291); it finally 
culminated with the reform of the old endowed Grammar Schools 
by the Act of 1869, the enactment of the Elementary Education 
Act of 1870 (R. 304), and the Act of 1871 freeing instruction 
in the universities from religious restrictions (R. 305). The first 
of these enactments declared clearly the right of the State to 
inquire into, reorganize, and redirect the age-old educational 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 345 

foundations for secondary education; the second made the 
definite though tardy beginnings of a national system of elemen- 
tary education for England; and the third opened up a university 
career to the whole nation. The agitation and conflict of ideas 
was long drawn out, and need not be traced in detail. 

The leaders in the conflict. The main leader in the parlia- 
mentary struggle to establish national education, from the death 
of Whitbread, in 1815, to about 1835, was Henry, afterwards 
Lord Brougham. He was aided by such men as Blackstone, and 
Bentham and his followers, and, after about 1837, by such men 
as Dickens, Carlyle, Macaulay, and John Stuart Mill. Dickens, 
by his descriptions, helped materially to create a sentiment favor- 
•able to education, as a right of the people rather than a charity. 
He stood strongly for a compulsory and non-sectarian state sys- 
tem of education that would transform the children of his day 
into generous, self-respecting, and intelligent men and women. 
Carlyle saw in education a cure for social evils, and held that one 
of the first functions of government was to impart the gift of 
thinking to its future citizens. 

Brougham was untiring in his efforts for popular education, 
and some idea as to the interest he awakened may be inferred 
from the fact that his Observations on the .a;^^^^ 

Education of the People, published in 1825, -^^^^^felk 

went through twenty editions the first ^^w^^^^ 
year. He introduced bills, secured com- M ^^^ . J^PB 
mittees of inquiry, made addresses, and ^^^^^ ^^^ 
used his pen in behalf of the education of %/)feri ^JtT 
the people. His belief in the power of ^^"z^x^Sk 

education to improve a people was very ^^m^^i^^^^ik. 
large. Warning the ''Lawgivers of Eng- iBiKL^^^^^^^ 
land" to take heed, he once said: ^^/.'Jj^^^^^^^ 

Let the soldier be abroad, if he will; he can w/\/^^S^^^''^ 
do nothing in this age. There is another per- ^ ' '^^^^~. 
sonage abroad, a person less imposing — in the Fig. %t, 

eye of some insignificant. The Schoolmaster Lord Brougham 

is abroad, and I trust him, armed with his (i 778-1 868) 

primer, against the soldier in full uniform array. 

Parallel with the agitation for some state action for education 
was an agitation for social and political reform. The basis for the 
election of members to the House of Commons was still mediae- 
val. Boroughs no longer inhabited still returned members, and 



346 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

sparsely settled regions returned members out of all proportion 
to the newly created city populations. Few, too, could vote. 
Only about 160,000 persons in a population of 10,000,000 had, 
early in the century, the right of the franchise. The city popula- 
tions were practically disfranchised in favor of rural landlords, 
the nobility, and the clergy. In 1828 Protestant Non-Conform- 
ists were relieved of their political disability, and in 1829 a similar 
enfranchisement was extended to Catholics. In 1832 came the 
first real voting reform in the passage of the so-called Third 
Reform Bill, after a most bitter parliamentary struggle. This 
reapportioned the membership of the House on a more equitable 
basis, and enfranchised those who owned or leased lands or 
buildings of a value of £10 a year. The result of this was to en- • 
franchise the middle class of the population ; increase the number 
of voters (1836) from about 175,000 to about 839,500 out of 
6,023,000 adult males; and effectively break the power of the 
House of Lords to elect the House of Commons. Progressive 
legislation now became much easier to secure, and in 1833 a Bill 
making a grant of £20,000 a year to aid in building schoolhouses 
for elementary schools — ■ the first government aid for elementary 
education ever voted in England — became a law (R. 299). 

Progress after 1833. The Law of 1833, though, made but the 
merest beginnings, and up to 1840 the money granted was given 
to the two great national school societies, and without regulation. 
Beginning in 1840, and continuing up to the beginnings of na- 
tional education, in 1870, the grants were state-controlled and 
distributed through the different educational societies. Propo- 
sals to add local taxation, in 1853 and 1856, were dropped almost 
as soon as made. Training-schools for teachers also were be- 
gun, and aided by grants. In 1845 the EngHsh ''pupil-teacher" 
system also was begun in an effort to supply teachers of some 
little training. A State Department of Education was created, 
in 1856, though without much power. 

Difficulties encountered. In the meantime liberal leaders, 
Schools Inquiry Commissions, official reports, and educational 
propagandists continued to pile up evidence as to the inade- 
quacy of the old voluntary system. A few examples, out of 
hundreds that might be cited, will be mentioned here. Lord 
Macaulay, in an address made in Parliament, in 1847 (^* S^o), 
defending a ''Minute" of the "Committee of Privy Council on 
Education" (created in 1839) proposing the nationalization of 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 347 




Fig. 85 
Lord Macaulay 

(1800-59) 



education, held it to be ''the right and duty of the State to pro- 
vide for the education of the common people," as an exercise of 
self-protection, and warned the Commons 
of dangers to corne if the progressive ten- 
dencies of the time were not listened to. 
The Reports of the school inspectors, too, 
revealed conditions in need of being rem- 
edied in all phases of educational effort. 
The Report on the Apprenticing of Pauper 
Children (R. 301) is selected as typical of 
many similar reports. 

So deeply ingrained, though, was the 
English conception of education as a pri- 
vate and voluntary and religious affair and 
no business of the State; so self-contained 
were the English as a people; and so little 
did they know or heed the progress made 
in other lands, that the arguments for 
national action encountered tremendous 
opposition from the Conservative elements, and often were 
opposed even by Liberals. 

The beginnings of national organization. By 1865 it had be- 
come evident to a majority that the voluntary system, whatever 
its merits, would never succeed in educating the nation, and from 
this time forth the demand for some acceptable scheme for the 
organization of national education became a part of a still more 
general movement for poHtical and social reform. Once more, as 
in 1832-33, an education law was enacted following the passage 
of a bill for electoral reform and the extension of the suffrage. 

Though the Liberal Party was in power, it was well satisfied 
with the Reform Act of 1832 because through it the middle classes 
of the population, which the Liberal Party represented, had gained 
control of the government. The country, though, was not — the 
working-classes in particular demanding a share in the govern- 
ment. Finally the demand became too strong to be resisted, and 
the Second Reform Act, of 1867, became a law. This abolished 
a number of the remaining smaller boroughs, and gave the vote 
to a vastly increased number of people, particularly city workers. 
It was a political revolution for England of great magnitude. 

From the passage of this new Reform Act to 1870, the organiza- 
tion of national education only awaited the formulation of some 



348 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

acceptable scheme. "We must educate our new masters," now 
became a common expression. The main question was how to 
create schools to do what the voluntary schools had shown them- 
selves able to do for a part, but were unable to do for all, without 
at the same time destroying the vast denominational system 
that, in spite of its defects, had "done the great service of rearing 
a race of teachers, spreading schools, setting up a standard of 
education, and generally making the introduction of a national 
system possible." 

The Elementary Education Bill of 1870 (R. 304) preserved the 
existing Voluntary Schools; divided the country up into school 
districts; gave the denominations a short period in which to pro- 
vide schoofs, with aid for buildings; and thereafter, in any place 
where a deficiency in school accommodations could be shown to 
exist. School Boards were to be elected, and they should have 
power to levy taxes and maintain elementary schools. Existing 
Voluntary Schools might be transferred to the School Boards, 
whose schools were to be known as Board Schools. The schools 
were not ordered made free, but the fees of necessitous children 
were to be provided for by the School Boards, and they might 
compel the attendance of all children between the ages of five and 
twelve. Inspection and grants were limited to secular subjects, 
though religious teaching was not forbidden. The central govern- 
ment was to be secular and neutral; the local boards might de- 
cide as they saw fit. Such were the beginnings of national edu- 
cation in England. 

In 1880 elementary education had been made fully compulsory, 
and in 1891 largely, free. In 1893 the age for exemption from 
attendance was fixed at eleven, and in 1899 this was raised to 
twelve. In 1888 county and borough councils had been created, 
better to enforce the Act and to extend supervision. In 1899 a 
Central Board of Education, under a President and a Parlia- 
mentary Secretary, was created. 

In 1902, for the first time in English history, education of all 
grades — elementary, secondary, and higher; voluntary and 
state — was brought under the control of one single local author- 
ity, and Voluntary Schools were taken over and made a charge 
on the "rates" equally with the Board Schools. New local Edu- 
cational Committees and Councils replaced the old School Boards, 
and all secular instruction in state-aided schools of all types was 
now placed under their control. Religious instruction could 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 349 



continue where desired. In addition, one third of the property of 
England, which had heretofore escaped all direct taxation for edu- 
cation, was now compelled to pay its proper share. The founda- 
tion principle that ''the wealth of the State must educate the 
children of the State" was now appHed, for the first time. 

By the time of the opening of the recent World War it may be 
said that English opinion had about agreed upon the principle of 
pubUc control of all schools, absolute religious freedom for teachers, 
local option as to religious instruction, large local liberty in man- 
agement and control, well- trained and well-paid teachers, and the 
fusing of all types of 
schools into a democratic 
and truly national school 
system, strong in its unity 
and national elements, 
but free from centralized 
bureaucratic control. It 
was left for the World 
War to give emphasis to 
this national need and to 
permit of the final crea- 
tion of such an educa- 
tional organization. 

A national system at 
last evolved. It is a Httle 
more than two centuries 
from the founding of the 
Society for the Promotion 
of Christian Knowledge 
(1699) to the very impor- 
tant Fisher Education Act 
of August, 1 9 1 8 . The first 
marked the beginnings of 
the voluntary system ; the 
second ''the first real at- 
tempt in England to lay 
broad and deep the foun- 
dations of a scheme of ed- 
ucation which would be 
truly national." This Act, passed by Parliament in the midst 
of a war which called upon the English people for heavy sacri- 




Schools 



Endowed 
and 
5 Proprietary 
Schools 



Fig. 86. The English Educational 
System as finally evolved 

The years, for the divisions of English educa- 
tion, are only approximate, as English educa- 
tion is more flexible than that found in most 
other lands. 



350 A BRIEF HISTORIC OF EDUCATION 

fices, completed the evolution of two centuries and organized 
the educational resources — elementary, secondary, evening, 
adult, technical, and higher — into one national system, ani- 
mated by a national purpose, and aimed at the accomplish- 
ment for the nation of twentieth-century ends on the most demo- 
cratic basis of any school system in Europe. In so doing Hux- 
ley's educational ladder has not only been changed into a broad 
highway, but the educational traditions of England (R. 306) 
have been preserved and moulded anew. 

The central national supervisory authority has been still further 
strengthened; the compulsion to attend greatly extended; and the 
voice of the State has been uttered in a firmer tone than ever 
before in English educational history. Taxes have been increased ; 
the scope of the school system extended; all elements of the sys- 
tem better integrated; laggard local educational authorities sub- 
jected to firmer control ; the training of teachers looked after more 
carefully than ever before; and the foundations for unlimited im- 
provement and progress in education laid down. Still, in doing 
all this, the deep English devotion to local liberties has been 
clearly revealed. The dangers of a centralized French-type edu- 
cational bureaucracy have been avoided ; necessary, and relatively 
high, minimum standards have been set up, but without sacrific- 
ing that variety which has always been one of the strong points 
of English educational effort; and the legitimate claims of the 
State have been satisfied without destroying local initiative and 
independence. In this story of two centuries and more of struggle 
to create a really national system of education for the people we 
see strongly revealed those prominent characteristics of English 
national progress — careful consideration of new ideas, keen sen- 
sitiveness to vested rights, strong sense of local liberties and 
responsibihties, large dependence on local effort and good sense, 
progress by compromise, and a slow grafting-on of the best ele- 
ments of what is new without sacrificing the best elements of 
what is old. 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Show that the English method of slow progress and after long discussion 
would naturally result in a plan bearing evidence of many compromises. 

2. What does the extensive Charity-School movement in eighteenth-century 
England indicate as to the comparative general interest in learning in 
England and the other lands we have previously studied? 

3. Show how the Sunday-School instruction, meager as it was, was very 



NATIONAL ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND 351 

' P^^l^^l,^^^^^^'^ -'^- a. usual,v followed 
'■ Engirnd.""'"" "'^ Pestaloz.ian ideas found such slow acceptance in 

SELECTED READINGS 

are'repr^dTedr^"^ ^''' "^ ""'''''''' ^^^ ^^"^--^ ^^^-trative selections 

202* IfcK'^^'r.^Z^''- Ch^^^^r^^^^^^ Education described. 
20^ Ti.£\\ '■ ^-^^ ^^PP°'^ ^^ Charity-Schools. 
^of r .1 •• ^^^^^^Ption of the Gloucester Sunday Schools 

: ^j^^p^^.^::^^^^^^^ school. 

296. Malthus: On National Education ^ 

Inl' lw^'\l-'- ^^' ^.'^^^^ °^ Lancaster described. 

295. i^hilanthropist: Automatic Character of thp Mnni'f^v^oi c u i 

301. Mosely: Evils of Apprenticing the Children of Paupers 

304. Statute: Elementary Education Act of 1870 ^ 

?o6* T n^ T^^^^'^^^^ °.^ ^'^^^^^^^ Tests at the Universities 
306. Tmies: The Educational Traditions of England 



352 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Adams, Francis. History of the Elementary School Contest in England. 
Allen, W. O. B. and McClure, E. Two Hundred Years; History of 
S.P.C.K. 1698-1898. 
*Binns, H. B. A Century of Education, 1808-1908 ; History of the British 

and Foreign School Society. 
*Birchenough, C. History of Elementary Education in England and Wales 
since 1800. 
Escott, T. H. S. Social Transformations of the Victorian Era. 
Harris,' J. H. Robert Raikes; the Man and his Work. 
*Holman, H. English National Education. 

*Montmorency, J. E. G. de. The Progress of Education in England.^ 
*Montmorency, J. E. G. de. State Intervention in English Education to 

1^33- 
♦Salmon, David. Joseph Lancaster. 



CHAPTER XXV 

AWAKENING AN EDUCATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS IN 
THE UNITED STATES 

I. EARLY NATIONAL ATTITUDES AND INTERESTS 

The American problem. The beginnings of state educational 
organization in the United States present quite a different history 
from that just traced for Prussia, France, or England. While 
the parochial school existed in the Central Colonies, and in time 
had to be subordinated to state ends ; and while the idea of educa- 
tion as a charity had been introduced into all the Anglican Colo- 
nies, and later had to be stamped out; the problem of educational 
organization in America was not, as in Europe, one of bringing 
church schools and old educational foundations into harmonious 
working relations with the new state school systems set up. In- 
stead the old educational foundations were easily transformed to 
adapt them to the new conditions, while only in the Central Colo- 
nies did the religious- charity conception of education give any 
particular trouble. The American educational problem was 
essentially that of first awakening, in a new land, a consciousness 
of need for general education; and second, that of developing a 
willingness to pay for what it finally came to be deemed desirable 
to provide. 

By the middle of the eighteenth century, as we have pointed 
out (p. 285), the earlier religious interests in America had clearly 
begun to wane. In the New England Colonies the school of the 
civil town had largely replaced the earlier religious school. In 
the Middle Colonies many of the parochial schools had died out. 
In the Southern Colonies, where the classes in society and negro 
slavery made common schools impossible, and the lack of city life 
and manufacturing made them seem largely unnecessary, the 
common school had tended to disappear. Even in New England, 
where the Calvinistic conception of the importance of education 
had most firmly established the idea of school support, the eight- 
eenth century witnessed a constant struggle to prevent the dying- 
out of that which an earlier generation had deemed it important 
to create. 

Effect of the war on education. The effect of the American 
War for Independence, on all typss of schools, was disastrous. 



354 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The growing troubles with the mother country had, for more 
than a decade previous to the opening of hostiHties, tended to 
concentrate attention on other matters than schooHng. Political 
discussion and agitation had largely monopolized the thinking of 
the time. 

With the outbreak of the war education everywhere suffered 
seriously. Most of the rural and parochial schools closed, or 
continued a more or less intermittent existence. In New York 
City, then the second largest city in the country, practically all 
schools closed with British occupancy and remained closed until 
after the end of the war. The Latin grammar schools and acade- 
mies often closed from lack of pupils, while the colleges were 
almost deserted. Harvard and Kings, in particular, suffered 
grievously, and sacrificed much for the cause of Hberty. The 
war engrossed the energies and the resources of the peoples of the 
different Colonies, and schools, never very securely placed in the 
affections of the people, outside of New England, were allowed to 
fall into decay or entirely disappear. Meager as were the opportu- 
nities for schooling before 1775, the opportunities by 1790, except 
in a few cities and in the New England districts, had shrunk 
almost to the vanishing point. For Boston (R. 307), Providence 
(Rs. 309, 310), and a number of other places we have good pic- 
tures preserved of the schools which actually did exist. 

No real educational consciousness before about 1820. Re- 
gardless of the national land grants for education made to the 
new States (p. 371), the provisions of the different state constitu- 
tions (R. 259), the beginnings made here and there in the few 
cities of the time, and the early state laws (R. 262), it can hardly 
be said that the American people had developed an educational 
consciousness, outside of New England and New York, before 
about 1820, and in some of the States, especially in the South, a 
state educational consciousness was not awakened until very 
much later. Even in New England there was a steady decline in 
education during the first fifty years of the national history. 

There were many reasons in the national life for this lack of 
interest in education among the masses of the people. The simple 
agricultural life of the time, the homogeneity of the people, the 
absence of cities, the isolation and independence of the villages, 
the lack of full manhood suffrage in a number of the States, the 
want of any economic demand for education, and the fact that no 
important political question calling for settlement at the polls 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 355 

had as yet arisen, made the need for schools and learning seem a 
relatively minor one. 

When the people had finally settled their political and com- 
mercial future by the War of 181 2-14, and had built up a national 
consciousness on a democratic basis in the years immediately fol- 
lowing, and the Nation at last possessed the energy, the money, 
and the interest for doing so, they finally turned their energies 
toward the creation of a democratic system of public schools. In 
the meantime, education, outside of New England, and in part 
even there, was left largely to private individuals, churches, in- 
corporated school societies, and such state schools for the children 
of the poor as might have been provided by private or state 
funds, or the two combined. 

The real interest in advanced education. In so far as the 
American people may be said to have possessed a real interest in 
education during the first half-century of the national existence, 
it was manifested in the establishment and endowment of acade- 
mies and colleges rather than in the creation of schools for the 
people. The colonial Latin grammar school had been almost 
entirely an English institution, and never well suited to American 
needs. As democratic consciousness began to arise, the demand 
came for a more practical institution, less exclusive and less aris- 
tocratic in character, and better adapted in its instruction to the 
needs of a frontier society. Arising about the middle of the 
eighteenth century, a number of so-called Academies had been 
founded before the new National Government took shape. While 
essentially private institutions, arising from a church founda- 
tion, or more commonly a local subscription or endowment, 
it became customary for towns, counties, and States to assist in 
their maintenance, thus making them semi-pubHc institutions. 
Their management, though, usually remained in private hands, 
or under boards or associations. 

Beside offering a fair type of higher training before the days 
of high schools, the academies also became training-schools for 
teachers, and before the rise of the normal schools were the chief 
source of supply for the better grade of elementary teachers. 
These institutions rendered an important service during the first 
half of the nineteenth century, but were in time displaced by the 
pubhcly supported and pubUcly controlled American high school, 
the first of which dates from 182 1. This evolution we shall 
describe more in detail a little later on. 



356 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The colleges of the time. Some interest also was taken in col- 
lege education during this early national period. College attend- 
ance, however, was small, as the country was still new and the 
people were poor. As late as 1815, Harvard graduated a class of 
but 66; Yale of 69; Princeton of 40; Williams of 40; Pennsylvania 
of 15; and the University of South Carolina of 37. After the 
organization of the Union the nine old colonial colleges were re- 
organized, and an attempt was made to bring them into closer 
harmony with the ideas and needs of the people and the govern- 
ments of the States. Dartmouth, Kings (now rechristened 
Columbia), and Pennsylvania were for a time changed into state 
institutions, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to make a 
state university for Virginia out of William and Mary. Fifteen 
additional colleges were organized by 1800, and fourteen more by 
1820. Between 1790 and 1825 there was much discussion as to 
the desirability of founding a national university at the seat of 
government, and Washington in his will (1799) left, for that time, 
a considerable sum to the Nation to inaugurate the new under- 
taking. Nothing ever 'came of it, however. Before 1825 six 
States — Georgia, Virginia, North CaroHna, South CaroHna, 
Indiana, and Michigan — had laid the foundations of future 
state universities. The National Government had also granted 
to each new Western State two entire tow^nships of land to help 
endow a university in each — a stimulus which eventually led to 
the establishment of a state university in every Western State. 

A half-century of transition. The first half-century of the 
national life may be regarded as a period of transition from the 
church-control idea of education over to the idea of education 
under the control of and supported by the State. Though many 
of the early States had provided for state school systems in their 
constitutions (R. 259), the schools had not been set up, or set up 
only here and there. It required time to make this change in 
thinking. Up to the period of the beginnings of our national 
development education had almost everywhere been regarded as 
an affair of the Church, somewhat akin to baptism, marriage, the 
administration of the sacraments, and the burial of the dead. 
Even in New England, which formed an exception, the evolution 
of the civic school from the church school was not yet complete. 

The church charity-school had become, as we have seen (p. 240), 
a familiar institution before the Revolution. The different churches 
after the war continued their efforts to maintain their church 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 357 

charity-schools, though there was for a time a decrease in both 
their numbers and their effectiveness. 

In the meantime the demand for education grew rather rapidly, 
and the task soon became too big for the churches to handle. 
For long the churches made an effort to keep up, as they were 
loath to relinquish in 5.ny way their former hold on the training 
of the young. The churches, however, were not interested in the 
problem except in the old way, and this was not what the new 
democracy wanted. The result was that, with the coming of 
nationality and the slow but gradual growth of a national con- 
sciousness, national pride, national needs, and the gradual devel- 
opment of national resources in the shape of taxable property — • 
all alike combined to make secular instead of religious schools 
seem both desirable and possible to a constantly increasing num- 
ber of citizens. 

II. AWAKENING AN EDUCATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS 

Between about 18 10 and 1830 a number of new forces — phil- 
anthropic, political, social, economic — combined to change the 
earlier attitude by producing conditions which made state rather 
than church control and support of education seem both desirable 
and feasible. The change, too, was markedly facilitated by the 
work of a number of semi-private philanthropic agencies which 
now began the work of founding schools and building up an inter- 
est in education, the most important of which were: (i) the Sun- 
day-School movement; (2) the City School Societies; (3) the 
Lancastrian movement; and (4) the Infant-School Societies. 
These will be described briefly, and their influence in awakening 
an educational consciousness pointed out. 

The Sunday-School movement. The Sunday School, as a 
mean? of providing the merest rudiments of secular and religious 
learning, had been made, through the initiative of Raikes of 
Gloucester (p. 337), a very important EngHsh institution for 
providing the beginnings of instruction for the children of the city 
poor. Raikes's idea was soon carried to the United States. In 
1 791 "The First Day, or Sunday School Society," was organized 
at Philadelphia, for the establishment of Sunday Schools in that 
city. In 1793 Katy Ferguson's " School for the Poor " was opened 
in New York, and this was followed by an organization of New 
York women for the extension of secular instruction among the 
poor. In 1797 Samuel Slater's Factory School was opened at 



358 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

Pawtucket, Rhode Island. These American Sunday Schools, 
being open to all instead of only to the poor and lowly, had a 
small but an increasing influence in leveling class distinctions and 
in making a common day school seem possible. The movement 
for secular instruction on Sundays, though, soon met in America 
with the opposition of the churches, and before long they took 
over the idea, superseded private initiative and control, and 
changed the character of the instruction from a day of secular 
work to an hour or so of religious teaching. The Sunday School, 
in consequence, never exercised the influence in educational devel- 
opment in America that it did in England. 

The City School Societies. These were patterned after the 
EngHsh charity-school subscription societies, and were formed in 
a number of American cities during the first quarter of the nine- 
teenth century for the purpose of providing the rudiments of an 
education to those too poor to pay for schooling. These Societies 
were usually organized by philanthropic citizens, willing to con- 
tribute something yearly to provide some little education for a 
few of the many children in the city having no opportunities for 
any instruction. A number of these Societies were able to effect 
some financial connection with the city or the State. 

" The Public School Society." Perhaps the most famous of all 
the early subscription societies for the maintenance of schools for 
the poor was the "New York Free School Society," which later 
changed its name to that of ''The Public School Society of New 
York." This was organized, in 1805, under the leadership of 
De Witt Clinton, then mayor of the city, he heading the subscrip- 
tion fist with a promise of $200 a year for support. On May 14, 
1806, the following advertisement appeared in the daily papers: 

FREE SCHOOL 

The Trustees of the Society for establishing a Free School in the 
city of New York, for the education of such poor children as do not 
belong to, or are not provided for by any religious Society, having 
engaged a Teacher, and procured a School House for the accommo- 
dation of a School, have now the pleasure of announcing that it is 
proposed to receive scholars of the descriptions alluded to without 
delay; applications may be made to, &c. 

Four days later the officers of the Society issued a general 
appeal to the public (R. 311), setting forth the purposes of the 
Society and soliciting funds. 

This Society was chartered by the legislature ^'to provide 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 359 

schooling for all children who are the proper objects of a gratui- 
tous education." It organized free public education in the city, 
secured funds, built schoolhouses, provided and trained teachers, 
and ably supplemented the work of the private and church schools. 
By its energy and its persistence it secured for itself a large share 
of public confidence, and aroused a constantly increasing interest 
in the cause of popular education. In 1853, after it had educated 
over 600,000 children and trained over 1200 teachers, this Society, 
its work done, surrendered its charter and turned over its buildings 
and equipment to the public-school department of the city, which 
had been created by the legislature in 1842. 

School Societies elsewhere. The ''Benevolent Society of the 
City of Baltimore for the Education of the Female Poor," founded 
in 1799, and the ''Male Free Society of Baltimore," organized a 
little later, were other of these early school societies, though 
neither became so famous as the Public School Society of New 
York. The schools of the city of Washington were started by sub- 
scription, in 1804, and for some time were in part supported by 
subscriptions from public-spirited citizens. This society did an 
important work in accustoming the people of the capital city to 
the provision of some form of free education. 

In 1800 "The Philadelphia Society for the Free Instruction 
of Indigent Boys" was formed, which a little later changed to 
"The Philadelphia Society for the Establishment and Support of 
Charity Schools." In 18 14 "The Society for the Promotion of a 
Rational System of Education" was organized in Philadelphia, 
and four years later the pubKc sentiment awakened by a combina- 
tion of the work of this Society and the coming of the Lancastrian 
system of instruction enabled the city to secure a special law per- 
mitting Philadelphia to organize a system of city schools for the 
education of the children of its poor. Other societies which ren- 
dered useful educational service include the "Mechanics and 
Manufacturers Association," of Providence, Rhode Island, organ- 
ized in 1789 (Rs. 308, 310); "The Albany Lancastrian School 
Society," organized in 1826, for the education of the poor of the 
city in monitorial schools; and the school societies organized in 
Savannah in 1818, and Augusta, in 182 1, " to afford education to the 
children of indigent parents." Both these Georgia societies re- 
ceived some support from state funds. 

The for^nation of these school societies, the subscriptions made 
by the leading men of the cities, the bequests for education, and 



36o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the grants of some city and state aid to these societies, all of which 
in time became somewhat common, indicate a slowly rising inter- 
est in providing schools for the education of all. This rising 
interest in education was greatly stimulated by the introduction 
from England, about this time, of a new and what for the time 
seemed a wonderful system for the organization of education, the 
Lancastrian monitorial plan. 

The Lancastrian monitorial schools. Church-of-England ideas 
were not in much favor in the United States for some time after 
the close of the Revolutionary War, and in consequence it was the 
Lancastrian plan which was brought over and popularized. In 
1806 the first monitorial school was opened in New York City, 
and, once introduced, the system quickly spread from Massachu- 
setts to Georgia, and as far west as Louisville and Detroit. In 
1 8 18 Lancaster himself went to America, and was received 
with much distinction. Most of the remaining twenty years of 
his life were spent in organizing and directing schools in various 
parts of the United States. 

In many of the rising cities of the eastern part of the country 
the first free schools established were Lancastrian schools. The 
system provided education at so low a cost (p. 360) that it made 
the education of all for the first time seem possible. The first 
free schools in Philadelphia (18 18) were an outgrowth of Lancas- 
trian influence, as was also the case in many other Pennsylvania 
cities. Baltimore began a Lancastrian school six years before the 
organization of public schools was permitted by law. A number 
of monitorial high schools were organized in different parts of the 
United States, and it was even proposed that the plan should be 
adopted in the colleges. A number of New England cities, that 
already had other type schools, investigated the new moni- 
torial plan and were impressed with its many important points 
of superiority over methods then in use. The Report of the 
Investigating Committee (1828) for Boston (R. 312), forms a 
good example of such. It is not strange that the new plan 
aroused widespread enthusiasm in many discerning men, and for 
almost a quarter of a century was advocated as the best system 
of education then known. As in England, though, the system 
was very popular from about 18 10 to 1830, but by 1840 its 
popularity was over. 

The Lancastrian schools materially hastened the adoption of 
the free school system in all the Northern States by gradually ac- 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 361 

customing people to bearing the necessary taxation which free 
schools entail. They also made the common school common and 
much talked of, and awakened thought and provoked discussion 
on the question of pubhc edu- 



cation. They likewise digni 
fied the work of the teacher 
by showing the necessity for 
teacher-training. The Lan- 
castrian Model Schools, first 
established in the United 
States in 18 18, were the pre- 
cursors of the Amxcrican nor- 
mal schools. 

Coming of the Infant School. 
A curious early condition in 
America was that, in some of 
the cities where public schools 
had been .estabhshed, by one 
agency or another, no pro- 
vision had been made for be- 
ginners. These were supposed 
to obtain the elements of read- 
ing at home, or in the Dame 
Schools. In Boston, for exam- 
ple, where public schools were 
maintained by the city, no 
children could be received 
into the schools who had not 







Fig. 87 
"Model" School Building of the 

Public School Society 
Erected in 1843. Cost (with site), $17,000. 
A typical New York school building, after 
1830. The infant or primary school was on 
the first floor, the second floor contained the 
girls' school, and the third floor the boys' 
school. Each floor had one large room 
seating 252 children; the primary school- 
room could be divided into two rooms by 
folding doors, so as to segregate the infant 
class. This building was for long regarded 
as the perfection of the builder's art, and 
its picture was printed for years on the 
cover of the Society's Annual Reports. 



learned to read and write (R. 314 a). This made the common 
age of admission somewhere near eight years. The same was in 
part true of Hartford, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 
other cities. When the monitorial schools were estabhshed' they 
tended to restrict their membership in a similar manner, though 
not always able to do so. 

In 18 1 6 there came to America, also from England, a valuable 
supplement to education as then known in the form of the so- 
called Infant Schools (p. 361). First introduced at Boston (R. 
313), the Infant Schools proved popular, and in 1818 the city ap- 
propriated $5000 for the purpose of organizing such schools to 
supplement the public-school system. These were to admit 
children at four years of age, were to be known as primary schools, 



362 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

were to be taught by women, were to be open all the year round, 
and were to prepare the children for admission to the city schools, 
which by that time had come to be known as English grammar 
schools. Providence, similarly, established primary (Infant) 
schools in 1828 for children between the ages of four and eight, 
to supplement the work of the public schools, there called writ- 
ing schools. 

For New England the estabhshment of primary schools virtu- 
ally took over the Dame School instruction as a public function, 
and added the primary grades to the previously existing school. 
We have here the origin of the division, often still retained at least 
in name in the Eastern States, of the "primary grades" and the 
''grammar grades" of the elementary school. 

Primary education organized. The Infant-School idea was 
soon somewhat generally adopted by the Eastern cities, and 



1700 



1800 



1830 



1860 



1890 




Fig. 88. Evolution of the Essential Features or the 
American Public School System 



changed somewhat to make of it an American primary school. 
Where children had not been previously admitted to the schools 
without knowing how to read, as in Boston, they supplemented 
the work of the public schools by adding a new school beneath. 
Where the reverse had been the case, as in New York City, the 
organization of Infant Schools as Junior Departments enabled the 
existing schools to advance their work. Everywhere it resulted, 
eventually, in the organization of primary and grammar school 
departments, often with intermediate departments in between, 
and, with the somewhat contemporaneous evolution of the first 
high schools, the main outlines of the American free public-school 
system were now complete. 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 363 

These four important educational movements — the secular 
Sunday School, the semi-pubHc city School Societies, the Lan- 
castrian plan for instruction, and the Infant-School idea — all 
arising in philanthropy, came as successive educational ideas to 
America during the first half of the nineteenth century, supple- 
mented one another, and together accustomed a new generation 
to the idea of a common school for all. 

III. SOCIAL, POLITICAL, AND ECONOMIC INFLUENCES 

It is hardly probable, however, that these philanthropic efforts 
alone, valuable as they were, could have resulted in the great 
American battle for tax-supported schools, at as early a date as 
this took place, had they not been supplemented by a number of 
other movements of a social, political, and economic character 
which in themselves materially changed the nature and direction 
of our national life. The more important of these were: (i) The 
rise of cities and of manufacturing, (2) the extension of the suf- 
frage, and (3) the rise of new class-demands for schools. 

Growth of city population and manufacturing. At the time of 
the inauguration of the National Government nearly every one in 
America lived on the farm or in some Httle village. The first 
forty years of the national life were essentially an agricultural and 
a pioneer period. Even as late as 1820 there were but thirteen 
cities of 8000 inhabitants or over in the whole of the twenty-three 
States at that time comprising the Union, and these thirteen cities 
contained but 4.9 per cent of the total population of the Nation. 

After about 1825 these conditions began to change. By 1820 
many little villages were springing up, and these frequently 
proved the nuclei for future cities. In New England many of 
these places were in the vicinity of some waterfall, where cheap 
power made manufacturing on a large scale possible. Lowell, 
Massachusetts, which in 1820 did not exist and in 1840 had a 
population of over twenty thousand people, collected there 
largely to work in the mills, is a good illustration. Other cities, 
such as Cincinnati and Detroit, grew because of their advanta- 
geous situation as exchange and wholesale centers. With the 
revival of trade and commerce after the second war with Great 
Britain the cities grew rapidly both in number and size. 

The rise of the new cities and the rapid growth of the older ones 
materially changed the nature of the educational problem, by pro- 
ducing an entirely new set of social and educational conditions for 



364 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the people of the Central and Northern States to solve. The 
South, with its plantation life, negro slavery, and absence of 
manufacturing was largely unaffected by these changed condi- 
tions until well after the close of the Civil War. In consequence 
the educational awakening there did not come for nearly half a 
century after it came in the North. In the cities in the coast 
States north of Maryland, but particularly in those of New York 
and New England, manufacturing developed very rapidly. Cot- 
ton-spinning in particular became a New England industry, as did 
also the weaving of wool, while Pennsylvania became the center 
of the iron manufacturing industries. 

The development of this new type of factory work meant the 
beginnings of the breakdown of the old home and village indus- 
tries, the eventual abandonment of the age-old apprenticeship 
system (Rs. 200, 201), the start of the cityward movement of the 
rural population, and the concentration of manufacturing in large 
estabHshments, employing many hands to perform continuously 
certain limited phases of the manufacturing process. This in 
time was certain to mean a change in educational methods. It 
also called for the concentration of both capital and labor. The 
rise of the factory system, business on a large scale, and cheap 
and rapid transportation, all combined to diminish the impor- 
tance of agriculture and to change the city from an unimportant to 
a very important position in our national Hfe. The 13 cities of 
1820 increased to 44 by 1840, and to 141 by i860. There were 
four times as many cities in the North, too, where manufacturing 
had found a home, as in the South, which remained essentially 
agricultural. 

New social problems in the cities. The many changes in the 
nature of industry and of village and home life, effected by the 
development of the factory system and the concentration of man- 
ufacturing and population in the cities, also contributed materi- 
ally in changing the character of the old educational problem. 
When the cities were as yet but little villages in size and charac- 
ter, homogeneous in their populations, and the many social and 
moral problems incident to the congestion of peoples of mixed 
character had not as yet arisen, the church and charity and pri- 
vate school solution of the educational problem was reasonably 
satisfactory. As the cities now increased rapidly in size, became 
more city-like in character, drew to them diverse elements pre- 
viously largely unknown, and were required by state laws to ex- 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 



365 



tend the right of suffrage to all their citizens, the need for a new 
type of educational organization began slowly but clearly to mani- 
fest itself to an increasing number of citizens. The church, char- 
ity, and private school system completely broke down under the 
new strain. School Societies and Educational Associations, or- 
ganized for propaganda, now arose in the cities; grants of city or 
state funds for the partial support of both church and society 
schools were demanded and obtained; and numbers of charity 
organizations began to be estabhshed in the different cities to en- 
able them to handle better the new problems of pauperism, in- 
temperance, and juvenile delinquency which arose. 

The extension of the suffrage. The Constitution of the 
United States, though 
framed by the ablest 
men of the time, was 
framed by men who 
represented the old 
aristocratic concep- 
tion of education and 
government. The 

same was true of the 
conventions which 
framed practically all 
the early state con- 
stitutions. The early 
period of the national 
life was thus charac- 
terized by the rule of 
a class — a very well- 
educated and a very 
capable class, to be 
sure — but a class 
elected by a ballot 
based on property 
qualifications and be- 



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^31 


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1S16 


'^~^\ 1833 
1851 /V-r;?^ASl^ 

^■"^ 1850 >r 


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, V 

• 1820 








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^~\P' 1869 1 


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ISJO 




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L 1317 


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^ 1805 \y 








Id 


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^,^^845\ 




States shaded granted full suffrage ^:7 
at the time of admission to the Union . .-^ 





Fig. 89. Dates of the granting of 
Full Manhood Suffrage 
Some of the older States granted almost full man- 
hood suffrage at an earlier date, retaining a few minor 
restrictions until the date given on the map. States 
shaded granted full suffrage at the time of admission 
to the Union. 



longing to the older type of political and social thinking. 

Notwithstanding the statements of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, the change came but slowly. Up to 18 15 but four 
States had granted the right to vote to all male citizens, regard- 
less of property holdings or other somewhat similar restrictions. 
After 181 5 a democratic movement, which sought to abolish all 



366 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

class rule and all political inequalities, arose and rapidly gained 
strength. In this the new States to the westward, with their ab- 
sence of old estates or large fortunes, and where men were Judged 
more on their merits than in an older society, were the leaders. 
As will be seen from the map, every new State admitted east of 
the Mississippi River, except Ohio (admitted in 1802), where the 
New England element predominated, and Louisiana (1812), pro- 
vided for full manhood suffrage at the time of its admission to 
statehood. Five additional Eastern States had extended the 
same full voting privileges to their citizens by 1845, while the old 
requirements had been materially modified in most of the other 
Northern States. This democratic movement for the leveling of 
all class distinctions between white men became very marked, 
after 1820; came to a head in the election of Andrew Jackson as 
President, in 1828; and the final result was full manhood suffrage 
in ail the States. This gave the farmer in the West and the new 
manufacturing classes in the cities a preponderating influence in 
the affairs of government. 

Educational significance of the extension of suffrage. The 
educational significance of the extension of full manhood suffrage 
to all was enormous and far-reaching. 

There now took place in the United States, after about 1825, 
what took place in England after the passage of the Second Re- 
form Act (p. 347) of 1867. With the extension of the suffrage to 
all classes of the population, poor as well as rich, laborer, as well 
as employer, there came to thinking men, often for the first time, 
a realization that general education had become a fundamental 
necessity for the State, and that the general education of all in the 
elements of knowledge and civic virtue must now assume that 
importance in the minds of the leaders of the State that the edu- 
cation of a few for the service of the Church and of the many for 
simple church membership had once held in the minds of ecclesi- 
astics. 

Governors now began to recommend to their legislatures the 
estabhshment of tax-supported schools, and public men began 
to urge state action and state control. After about 1825 many 
labor unions were formed, and the representatives of these new 
organizations joined in the demands for schools and education, 
urging the free education of their children as a natural right. 
Many resolutions were adopted by these organizations demanding 
free state-supported schools. 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 367 



IV. ALIGNMENT OF INTERESTS, AND PROPAGANDA 

The alignment of interests. The second quarter of the nine- 
teenth century may be said to have witnessed the battle for tax- 
supported, publicly controlled and directed, and non-sectarian 
common schools. In 1825 such schools were still the distant hope 
of statesmen and reformers; in 1850 they had become an actuality 
in almost every Northern State. The twenty-five years interven- 
ing marked a period of pubHc agitation and educational propa- 
ganda; of many hard legislative fights; of a struggle to secure de- 
sired legislation, and then to hold what had been secured; of many 
bitter contests with church and private-school interests, which 
felt that their "vested rights" were being taken from them; and 
of occasional referenda in which the people were asked, at the 
next election, to advise the legislature as to what to do. Except- 
ing the battle for the abolition of slavery, perhaps no question has 
ever been before the American people for settlement which caused 
so much feeling or aroused such bitter antagonisms. The friends 
of free schools were at first commonly regarded as fanatics, dan- 
gerous to the State, and the opponents of free schools were con- 
sidered by them as old-time conservatives or as selfish members 
of society. 

Naturally such a bitter discussion of a public question forced an 
alignment of the people for or against publicly supported and 
controlled schools. 

The work of propaganda. !Jp meet the arguments of the ob- 
jectors, to change the opinions of a thinking few into the common 
opinion of the many, to overcome prejudice, and to awaken the 
public conscience to the public need for free and common schools 
in such a democratic society, was the work of a generation. To 
convince the masses of the people that the scheme of state schools 
was not only practicable, but also the best and most economical 
means for giving their children the benefits of an education; to 
convince propertied citizens that taxation for education was in the 
interests of both public and private welfare; to convince legisla- 
tors that it was safe to vote for free-school bills ; and to overcome 
the opposition due to apathy, religious jealousies, and private in- 
terests, was the work of years. In time, though, the desirability 
of common, free, tax-supported, non-sectarian, state-controlled 
schools became evident to a majority of the citizens in the differ- 
ent American States, and as it did the American State School, 



368 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

free and equally open to all, was finally evolved and took its place 
as the most important institution in the national life working for 
the perpetuation of a free democracy and the advancement of the 
public welfare. 

For this work of propaganda hundreds of School Societies and 
Educational Associations were organized; many conventions 
were held, and many resolutions favoring state schools were 
adopted; many ''Letters" and "Addresses to the Public" were 
written and published; pubhc-spirited citizens traveled over the 
country, making addresses to the people explaining the advan- 
tages of free state schools; many public-spirited men gave the best 
years of their hves to the state-school propaganda; and many gov- 
ernors sent communications on the subject to legislatures not yet 
convinced as to the desirability of state action. At each meeting 
of the legislatures for years a deluge of resolutions, memorials, 
and petitions for and against free schools met the members. 

The invention of the steam printing press came at about this 
time, and the first modern newspapers at a cheap price now ap- 
peared. These usually espoused progressive measures, and tre- 
mendously influenced public sentiment. Those not closely con- 
nected with church or private-school interests usually favored 
public tax-supported schools. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Explain why the development of a national consciousness was practically 
necessary before an educational consciousness could be awakened. 

2. Show why it was natural, suffrage conditions considered, that the early 
interest should have been in advanced education. 

3. Why did the Sunday-School movement prove of so much less usefulness 
in America than in England? 

4. Show the analogy between the earlier school societies for educational 
work and other forms of modern associative effort. 

5. Explain the great popularity of the Lancastrian schools over those previ- 
ously common in America. 

6. What were two of the important contributions of the Infant-School idea 
to American education? 

7. Why are schools and education much more needed in a country experi- 
encing a city and manufacturing development than in a country experi- 
encing an agricultural development? 

8. Show how the development of cities caused the old forms of education to 
break down, and made evident the need for a new type of education. 

9. Show how each extension of the suffrage necessitates an extension of 
educational opportunities and advantages. 



NEW INFLUENCES IN AMERICA 369 



SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following illustrative selec- 
tions are reproduced: 

307. Fowle: The Schools of Boston about 1 790-1815. 

308. Rhode Island: Petition for Free Schools, 1799. 

309. Providence: Rules and Regulations for the Schools in 1820. 

310. Providence: A Memorial for Better Schools, 1837. 

311. Bourne: Beginnings of PubUc Education in New York City. 

312. Boston Report: Advantages of the Monitorial System. 

313. Wightman: Establishment of Primary Schools in Boston. 

314. Boston: The Elementary-School System in 1823. 

315. Philadelphia: Report of Workingmen's Committee on Schools 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Binns, H. B. A Century of Education, 1S08-IQ08. 
Boese, Thos. Public Education in the City of New York. 
Cubberley, E. P. Public Education in the United States. 
*Fitzpatrick, E. A. The Educational Views and Influences of De Witt 
Clinton. 
McManis, J. T. "The Public School Society of New York City"; in 
Educational Review, vol. 29, pp. 303-11. (March, 1905.) 
*Palmer, A. E. The New York Public School System. 
*Reigart, J. F. The Lancastrian System of Instruction in the Schools of 

New York City. 
*Salmon, David. Joseph Lancaster. 
*Simcoe, A. M. Social Forces in American History, 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE STATE SCHOOLS 

The problem which confronted those interested in establishing 
state-controlled schools was not exactly the same in any two 
States, though the battle in many States possessed common ele- 
ments, and hence was somewhat similar in character. Instead 
of tracing the struggle in detail in each of the different States, it 
will be much more profitable for our purposes to pick out the 
main strategic points in the contest, and then illustrate the con- 
flict for these by describing conditions in one or two States where 
the controversy was most severe or most typical. The seven 
strategic points in the struggle for free, tax-supported, non-sec- 
tarian, state-controlled schools in the United States were: 

1. The battle for tax support. 

2. The battle to eliminate the pauper-school idea. 

3. The battle to make the schools entirely free. 

4. The battle to establish state supervision. 

5. The battle to eliminate sectarianism. 

6. The battle to extend the system upward. - 

7. Addition of the state university to crown the system. 

We shall consider each of these, briefly, in order. 

L THE BATTLE FOR TAX SUPPORT 

Early support and endowment funds. In New England, land 
endowments, local taxes, direct local appropriations, Hcense taxes, 
and rate-bills had long been common. Land endowments began 
early in the New England Colonies, while rate-bills date back to 
the earliest times and long remained a favorite means of raising 
money for school support. These means were adopted in the 
different States after the beginning of our national period, and to 
them were added a variety of license taxes, while occupational 
taxes, lotteries, and bank taxes also were employed to raise money 
for schools. A few examples of these may be cited: 

Connecticut, in 1774, turned over all proceeds of Hquor licenses 
to the towns where collected, to be used for schools. New Or- 
leans, in 1826, licensed two theaters on condition that they each 
pay $3000 annually for the support of schools in the city. New 
Yorkj in 1799, authorized four state lotteries to raise $100,000 for 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 371 

schools, a similar amount again in 1801, and numerous other lot- 
teries before 18 10. New Jersey (R. 246) and most of the other 
States did the same. Congress passed fourteen joint resolutions, 
between 181 2 and 1836, authorizing lotteries to help support the 
schools of the city of Washington. Bank taxes were a favorite 
source of income for schools, between about 1825 and i860, banks 
being chartered on condition that they would pay over each year 
for schools a certain sum or percentage of their earnings. These 
all represent what is known as indirect taxation, and were val- 
uable in accustoming the people to the idea of public schools 
without appearing to tax them for their support. 

The National Land Grants, begun in the case of Ohio in 1802, 
soon stimulated a new interest in schools. Each State admitted 
after Ohio also received the sixteenth section for the support of 
common schools, and two townships of land for the endowment of 
a state university. The new Western States, following the lead 
of Ohio (R. 260) and Indiana (R. 261), dedicated these section 
lands and funds to free common schools. The sixteen older 
States, however, did not share in these grants, so most of them 
now set about building up a permanent school fund of their own, 
though at first without any very clear idea as to how the income 
from the fund was to be used. 

The beginnings of school taxation. The early idea, which 
seems for a time to have been generally entertained, that the in- 
come from land grants, Hcense fees, and these permanent endow- 
ment funds would in time entirely support the necessary schools, 
was gradually abandoned as it was seen how little in yearly in- 
come these funds and lands really produced, and how rapidly the 
population of the States was increasing. By 1825 it may be said 
to have been clearly recognized by thinking men that the only 
safe rehance of a system of state schools lay in the.general and di- 
rect taxation of all property for their support. "The wealth of 
the State must educate the children of the State" became a 
watchword, and the battle for direct, local, county, and state 
taxation for education was clearly on by 1825 to 1830 in all the 
Northern States, except the four in New England where the prin- 
ciple of taxation for education had for long been estabKshed. 
Even in these States the struggle to increase taxation and provide 
better schools called for much argument and popular education 
(R. 316), and occasional backward movements (Rs. 317, 318) 
were encountered. 



372 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



The struggle to secure the first legislation, weak and ineffective 

as it seems to us to-day, was often hard and long. "Campaigns 

__^^__ of education" had to be 

prepared for and carried 
through. Many thought 
that tax-supported schools 
would be dangerous for 
the State, harmful to in- 
dividual good, and thor- 
oughly undemocratic. 
Many did not see the need 
for schools at all. Por- 
tions of a town or a city 
would provide a free 
school, while other por- 
tions would not. Often 
those in favor of taxation 
and even at times threatened with per- 
of improving the schools 




Fig. 



90. The First Free Public 
School in Detroit 



A one-room school, opened in the Second Ward, 
in 1838. No action was taken in any other 
ward until 1842. 



were bitterly assailed, 

sonal violence. Often those in favor 

had to wait patiently for the opposition slowly to wear itself out 

(R. 319) before any real progress could be made. 

State support fixed the state system. With the beginnings of 
state aid in any substantial sums, either from the income from 
permanent endowment funds, state appropriations, or direct state 
taxation, the State became, for the first time, in a position to en- 
force quite definite requirements in many matters. Communi- 
ties which would not meet the State's requirements would receive 
no state funds. 

One of the first requirements to be thus enforced was that com- 
munities or districts receiving state aid must also levy a local tax 
for schools. Commonly the requirement was a duplication of 
state aid. The next step in state control was to add still other 
requirements, as a prerequisite to receiving state aid. One of the 
first of such was that a certain length of school term, commonly 
three months, must be provided in each school district. Another 
was the provision of free heat, and later on free schoolbooks and 
supphes. 

When the duplication-of-state-aid-received stage had been 
reached, compulsory local taxation for education had been estab- 
lished, and the great central battle for the creation of a state 
school system had been won. The right to tax for support, and to 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 373 

compel local taxation, was the key to the whole state system of 
education. From this point on the process of evolving an ade- 
quate system of school support in any State has been merely the 
further education of public opinion to see new educational needs. 

II. THE BATTLE TO ELIMINATE THE PAUPER-SCHOOL IDEA 

The pauper-school idea. The pauper-school idea was a direct 
inheritance from England, and its home in America was in the 
old Central and Southern Colonies, where the old Anglican 
Church had been in control. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia were the chief representa- 
tives, though the idea had friends among certain classes of the 
population in other of the older States. The new and democratic 
West would not tolerate it. The pauper-school conception was a 
direct inheritance from English rule, belonged to a society based 
on classes, and was wholty out of place in a Republic founded on 
the doctrine that ''all men are created equal, and endowed by 
their Creator with certain unalienable rights." Still more, it was 
a very dangerous conception of education for a democratic form 
of government to tolerate or to foster. Its friends were found 
among the old aristocratic or conservative classes, the heavy tax- 
payers, the supporters of church schools, and the proprietors of 
private schools. Citizens who had caught the spirit of the new 
Republic, public men of large vision, intelligent workingmen, and 
men of the New England type of thinking were opposed on prin- 
ciple to a plan which drew such invidious distinctions between the 
future citizens of the State. To educate part of the children in 
church or private pay schools, they said, and to segregate those 
too poor to pay tuition and educate them at public expense in 
pauper schools, often with the brand of pauper made very evident 
to them, was certain to create classes in society which in time 
would prove a serious danger to our democratic institutions. 

The battle for the ehmination of the pauper-school idea was 
fought out in the North in the States of Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, and the struggle in these two States we shall now briefly 
describe. 

The Pennsylvania legislation. In Pennsylvania we find the 
pauper-school idea fully developed. The constitution of 1790 
(R. 259) had provided for a state system of pauper schools, but 
nothing was done to carry even this constitutional direction 
into effect until 1802. A pauper-school law was then enacted, 



374 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

directing the overseers of the poor to notify such parents as 
they deemed sufficiently indigent that, if they would declare 
themselves to be paupers, their children might be sent to some 
specified private or pay school and be given free education (R. 
315). The expense for this was assessed against the education 
poor-fund, which was levied and collected in the same manner as 
were road taxes or taxes for poor relief. No provision was made 
for the establishment of pubHc schools, even for the children of the 
poor, nor was any standard set for the education to be provided in 
the schools to which they were sent. No other general provision 
for elementary education was made in the State until 1834. 

With the growth of the cities, and the rise of their special prob- 
lems, something more than this very inadequate provision for 
schooling became necessary. "The Philadelphia Society for the 
Establishment and Support of Charity Schools" had long been 
urging a better system, and in 18 14 "The Society for the Promo- 
tion of a Rational System of Education" was organized in Phila- 
delphia for the purpose of educational propaganda. Bills were 
prepared* and pushed, and in 18 18 Philadelphia was permitted, by 
special law, to organize as "the first school district" in the State 
of Pennsylvania, and to provide, with its own funds, a system of 
Lancastrian schools for the education of the children of its poor. 
^,. The Law of 1834. In 1827 "The Pennsylvania Society for the 
^Promotion of Public Schools" began an educational propaganda, 
which did much to bring about the Free-School Act of 1834. 
Memorials were presented to the legislature year after year, gov- 
ernors were interested, "Addresses to the Public" were prepared, 
and a vigorous propaganda was kept up until the Free-School 
Law of 1834 was the result. 

This law, though, was optional. It created every ward, town- 
ship, and borough in the State a school district, a total of 987 be- 
ing created for the State. Each school district was ordered to 
vote that autumn on the acceptance or rejection of the law. 
Those accepting the law were to organize under its provisions, 
while those rejecting the law were to continue under the educa- 
tional provisions of the old Pauper-School Act. 

In the school elections of 1834, of a total of 987 districts created, 
502, in 46 of the then 52 counties (Philadelphia County not vot- 
ing), or 52 per cent of the whole number, voted to accept the new 
law and organize under it; 264 districts, in 31 counties, or 27 per 
cent of the whole, voted definitely to reject the law; and 221 dis- 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 375 

tricts, in 46 counties, or 21 per cent of the whole, refused to take 
any action either way. In 3 counties every district accepted 
the law, and in 5 counties every district rejected or refused to act 
on the law. It was the predominantly German counties, located 
in the east-central portion of the State, which were strongest in 
their opposition to the new law. One reason for this was that the 
new law provided for English schools; another was the objection 
of the thrifty Germans to taxation; and another was the fear that 
the new state schools might injure their German parochial 
schools. 

The real fight for free versus pauper schools, though, was yet 
to come. Legislators who had voted for the law were bitterly as- 
sailed, and, though it was but an optional law, the question of its 
repeal and the reinstatement of the old Pauper-School Law be- 
came the burning issue of the campaign in the autumn of 1834. 
Many legislators who had favored the law were defeated for re- 
election. Others, seeing defeat, refused to run. Petitions for the 
repeal of the law, and remonstrances against its repeal, flooded 
the legislature when it met. The Senate at once repealed the 
law, but the House, largely under the leadership of a Vermonter 
by the name of Thaddeus Stevens, refused to reconsider, and 
finally forced the Senate to accept an amended and a still 
stronger bill. This defeat finally settled, in principle at least, 
the pauper-school question in Pennsylvania, though it was not 
until ^73 that the last district in the State accepted the new 
system. 

Eliminating the pauper-school idea in New Jersey. No con- 
stitutional mention of education was made in New Jersey until 
1844, and no educational legislation was passed until 181 6. In 
that year a permanent state school fund was begun, and in 1820 
the first permission to levy taxes "for the education of such poor 
children as are paupers" was granted. In 1828 an extensive in- 
vestigation showed that one third of the children of the State 
were without educational opportunities, and as a result of this in- 
vestigation the first general school law for the State was enacted, 
in 1829. This provided for district schools, school trustees 
and visitation, licensed teachers, local taxation, and made a 
state appropriation of $20,000 a year to help establish the sys- 
tem. The next year, however, this law was repealed and the old 
pauper-school plan reestablished, largely due to the pressure of 
church and private-school interests. In 1830 and 183 1 the state 



376 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

appropriation was made divisible among private and parochial 
schools, as well as the public pauper schools, and the use of all 
public money was limited " to the education of the children of the 
poor." 

Between 1828 and 1838 a number of conventions of friends of 
free public schools were held in the State, and much work in the 
nature of propaganda was done. At a convention in 1838 a com- 
mittee was appointed to prepare an ''Address to the People of 
New Jersey" on the educational needs of the State (R. 320), and 
speakers were sent over the State to talk to the people on the sub- 
ject. The campaign against the pauper school had just been 
fought to a conclusion in Pennsylvania, and the result of the ap- 
peal in New Jersey was such a popular manifestation in favor of 
free schools that the legislature of 1838 instituted a partial state 
school system. The pauper-school laws were repealed, and the 
best features of the short-lived Law of 1829 were reenacted. In 
1844 a new state constitution limited the income of the per- 
manent state school fund exclusively to the support of pubUc 
schools. 

With the pauper-school idea eliminated from Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, the North was through with it. The wisdom of its 
elimination soon became evident, and we hear little more of it 
among Northern people. The democratic West never tolerated 
it. It continued some time longer in Maryland, Virginia, and 
Georgia, and at places for a time in other Southern States, but 
finally disappeared in the South as well in the educational reor 
ganizations which took place following the close of the Civil War. 

III. THE BATTLE TO MAKE THE SCHOOLS ENTIRELY FREE 

The schools not yet free. The rate-bill, as we have previously 
stated, was an old institution, also brought over from England, as 
the term " rate " signifies. It was a charge levied upon the parent 
to supplement the school revenues and prolong the school term, 
and was assessed in proportion to the number of children sent by 
each parent to the school. In some States, as for example Massa- 
chusetts and Connecticut, its use went back to colonial times; in 
others it was added as the cost for education increased, and it was 
seen that the income from permanent funds and authorized taxa- 
tion was not sufficient to maintain the school the necessary length 
of time. The deficiency in revenue was charged against the par- 
ents sending children to school, pro rata, and collected as ordi- 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 377 

nary tax-bills (R. 321). The charge was small, but it was suffi- 
cient to keep many poor children away from the schools. 

The rising cities, with their new social problems, could not and 
would not tolerate the rate-bill system, and one by one they se- 
cured special laws from legislatures which enabled them to organ- 
ize a city school system, separate from city-council control, and 
under a local "board of education." One of the provisions of 
these special laws nearly always was the right to levy a city tax 
for schools sufficient to provide free education for the children of 
the city. 

The fight against the rate-bill in New York. The attempt to 
abolish the rate-bill and make the schools wholly free was most 
vigorously contested in New York State, and the contest there is 
most easily described. While the wealthy districts were securing 
special legislation and taxing themselves to provide free schools 
for their children, the poorer and less populous districts were left 
to struggle to maintain their schools the four months each year 
necessary to secure state aid. F'inally, after much agitation, and 
a numxber of appeals to the legislature to assume the rate-bill 
charges in the form of general state taxation, and thus make the 
schools entirely free, the legislature, in 1849, referred the matter 
back to the people to be voted on at the elections that autumn. 
The legislature was to be thus advised by the people as to what 
action it should take. The result was a state-wide campaign for 
free, public, tax-supported schools, as against partially free, rate- 
bill schools. 

The result of the 1849 election was a vote of 249,872 in favor of 
making ''the property of the State educate the children of the 
State," and 91,952 against it. This only seemed to stir the op- 
ponents of free schools to renewed action, and they induced the 
next legislature to resubmit the question for another vote, in 
1850. The opponents of tax-supported schools now mustered 
their full strength, doubling their vote in 1849, while the majority 
for free schools was materially cut down. 

The rate-bill in other States. These two referenda virtually 
settled the question in New York, though for a time a compro- 
mise was adopted. The state appropriation for schools was very 
materially increased, the rate-bill was retained, and the organiza- 
tion of "union districts" to provide free schools by local taxation 
where people desired them was authorized. Many of these 
"union free districts" now arose in the more progressive com- 



378 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

muni ties of the State, and finally^Jn 1867, after rural and other 
forms of opposition had largely subsided, alid^^ after almost all the 
older States had abandoned the plan, the New York legislature 
finally aboHshed^the rate-bill and made the schools entirely free. 
The New York fight of 1849 and 1850 was the pivotal fight; in 
the other States it was abandoned by legislative act, and without 
a serious contest. In the Southern States free education came 
with the educational reorganizations following the close of the 
Civil War. 

IV. THE BATTLE TO ESTABLISH SCHOOL SUPERVISION 

Beginnings of state control. The great battle for state schools 
was not only for taxation to stimulate their development where 
none existed, but was also indirectly a battle for some form of 
state control of the local systems which had already grown up. 

State oversight and control, however, does not exercise itself, 
and it soon became evident that the States must elect or appoint 
some officer to represent the State and enforce the observance of 
its demands. It would be primarily his duty to see that the laws 
relating to schools were carried out, that statistics as to existing 
conditions were collected and printed, and that communities 
were properly advised as to their duties and the legislature as to 
the needs of the State. We. find now the creation of a series of 
school officers to represent the State, the enactment of new laws 
extending control, and a struggle to integrate, subordinate, and 
reduce to some semblance of a state school system the hundreds 
of httle community school systems which had grown up. 

The first state school officers. The first American State to 
create a state officer to exercise supervision over its schools was 
_New York, in 181 2. In enacting the new law providing for state 
aid for schools the first State Superintendent of Common Schools 
in the United States was created. So far as is known this was a 
distinctively American creation, uninfluenced by the practice in 
any other land. It was to be the duty of this officer to look after 
the establishment and maintenance of the schools throughout the 
State. Maryland created the office in 1826, but two years later 
aboKshed it and did not re-create it until 1864. IlHnois directed 
its Secretary of State to act, ex officio, as Superintendent of 
Schools in 1825, as did also Vermont in 1827, Louisiana in 1833, 
Pennsylvania in 1834, and Tennessee in 1835. Illinois did not 
create a real State Superintendent of Schools, though, until 1854, 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 379 

Vermont until 1845, Louisiana until 1847, Pennsylvania until 
1857, or Tennessee until 1867. The first States to create separate 
school officials who have been continued to the present time were 
^lichigan and Kentucky, both in 1837. Often quite a legislative 
struggle took place to secure the establishment of the office, and 
later on to prevent its abolition. 

By 1850 there were ex-qfficio state school officers in nine and 
regular school officers in seven of the then thirty-one States, and 
by 1 86 1 there were ex-officio officers in nine and regular officers in 
nineteen of the then thirty-four States, as well as one of each in 
two of the organized Territories. Ten of the thirty-four States 
had, by 1861, also created the office of County Superintendent of 
Schools. Twenty-five cities also had, by 1861, created the office 
of City Superintendent of Schools. Only three more cities — 
Albany, Washington, and Kansas City — were added before 1870, 
making a total of twenty-eight, but since that date the number 
of city superintendents has increased to something like fourteen 
hundred to-day. 

The first State Board of Education. Another important form 
for state control which was created a httle later was the State 
Board of Education, with an appointed Secretary, who exercised 
about the same functions as a State Superintendent of Schools. 
This form of organization first arose in Massachusetts, in 1837, in 
an effort to subordinate the district schools and reduce them to a 
semblance of an organized system. Instead of following the usual 
American practice of the time, and providing for an elected State 
School Superintendent, Massachusetts provided for a small ap- 
pointed State Board of Education which in turn was to select a 
Secretary, who was to act in the capacity of a state school officer 
and report to the Board, and through it to the legislature and 
the people. Neither the Board nor the Secretary were given any 
powers of compulsion, their work being to investigate conditions, 
report facts, expose defects, and make recommendations as to 
action to the legislature. The permanence and influence of the 
Board thus depended very largely on the character of the Secre- 
tary it selected. 

Horace Mann the first Secretary. A prominent Brown Univer- 
sity graduat e and lawyer in the State Senate, by the name of 
Horace Mann (i 796-1859), who as president of the Senate had 
been of much assistance in securing passage of the bill creating the 
State Board of Education, was finally induced by the Governor 



38o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

and the Board to accept the position of Secretary. Mr. Mann 
now began a most memorable work of educating public opinion, 
and soon became the acknowledged leader in school organization 
in the United States. State after State called upon him for ad- 
vice and counsel, while his twelve annual Reports to the State 
Board of Education will always remain memorable documents. 
Public men of all classes — lawyers, clergymen, college professors, 
literary men, teachers — • were laid under tribute and sent forth 
over the State explaining to the people the need for a reawakening 
of educational interest in Massachusetts. Every year Mr. Mann 
organized a " campaign," to explain to the people the meaning and 
importance of general education. So successful was he, and so 
ripe was the time for such a movement, that he not only started a 
great common school revival in Massachusetts which led to the 
regeneration of the schools there, but one which was felt and 
which influenced development in every Northern State. 

His twelve carefully written Reports on the condition of educa- 
tion in Massachusetts and elsewhere, with his intelligent discus- 
sion of the aims and purposes of public education, occupy a com- 
manding place in the history of American education, while he 
will always be regarded as perhaps the greatest of the "founders" 
of our American system of free public schools. No one did more 
than he to establish in the minds of the American people the con- 
ception that education should be universal, non-sectarian, and 
free, and that its aim should be social efficiency, civic virtue, and 
character, rather than mere learning or the advancement of sec- 
tarian ends. Under his practical leadership an unorganized and 
heterogeneous series of community school systems was reduced to 
organization and welded together into a state school system, and 
the people of Massachusetts were effectively recalled to their an- 
cient belief in and duty toward the education of the people. 

Henry Barnard in Connecticut and Rhode Island. Almost 
equally important, though of a somewhat different character, 
was the work of Henry Barnard (1811-1900) in Connecticut and 
Rhode Island. A graduate of Yale, and also educated for the 
law, he turned aside to teach and became deeply interested in 
education. The years 1835-37 he spent in Europe studying 
schools, particularly the work of Pestalozzi's disciples. On his 
return to America he was elected a member of the Connecticut 
legislature, and at once formulated and secured passage of the 
Connecticut law (1839) providing for a State Board of Commis- 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 381 

sioners for Common Schools, with a Secretary, after the Massa- 
chusetts plan. Mr. Barnard was then elected as its first Secre- 
tary, and reluctantly gave up the law and accepted the position at 
the munificent salary of $3 a day and expenses. Until the legis- 
lature abolished both the Board and the position, in 1842, he ren- 
dered for Connecticut a service scarcely less important than the 
better-known reforms which Horace Mann was at that time car^ 
rying on in Massachusetts. 

In 1843 he was called to Rhode Island to examine and report 
upon the existing schools, and from 1845 to 1849 acted as State 
Commissioner of Public Schools there, where he rendered a serv- 
ice similar to that previously rendered in Connecticut. In addi- 
tion he organized a series of town libraries throughout the State. 
For his teachers' institutes he devised a traveling model school, to 
give demonstration lessons in the art of teaching. From 1851 to 
1855 he was again in Connecticut, as principal of the newly estab- 
lished state normal school and ex-officio Secretary of the Connec- 
ticut State Board of Education. He now rewrote the school 
laws, increased taxation for schools, checked the power of the dis- 
tricts, there known as ''school societies," and laid the foundations 
of a state system of schools. The work of Mann and Barnard had 
its influence throughout all the Northern States, and encouraged 
the friends of education everywhere. Almost contemporaneous 
with them were leaders in other States who helped fight through 
the battles of state establishment and state organization and con- 
trol, and the period of their labors has since been termed the 
period of the ''great awakening." 

V. THE BATTLE TO ELIMINATE SECTARIANISM 

The secularization of American education. The Church, it 
will be remembered, was from the earliest colonial times in posses- 
sion of the education of the young. Not only were the earliest 
schools controlled by the Church and dominated by the religious 
motive, but the right of the Church to dictate the teaching in the 
schools was clearly recognized by the State. Still more, the State 
looked to the Church to provide the necessary education, and as- 
sisted it in doing so by donations of land and money. The minis- 
ter, as a town official, naturally examined the teachers and the in- 
struction in the schools. After the establishment of the National 
Government this relationship for a time continued. New York 
and the New England States specifically set aside lands to help 



382 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

both church and school. After about 1800 these land endow- 
ments for rehgion ceased, but grants of state aid for rehgious 
schools continued for nearly a half-century longer. Then it be- 
came common for a town or city to build a schoolhouse from city 
taxation, and let it out rent-free to any responsible person who 
would conduct a tuition school in it, with a few free places for se- 
lected poor children. Still later, with the rise of the state schools, 
it became quite common to take over church and private schools 
and aid them on the same basis as the new state schools. 

In colonial times, too, and for some decades into our national 
period, the warmest advocates of the establishment of schools 
were those who had in view the needs of the Church. Then grad- 
ually the emphasis shifted to the needs of the State, and a new 
class of advocates of pubKc education now arose. This change 
^*s known as the secularization of American education. It also 
required many a bitter struggle, and was accomplished in the 
different States but slowly. 

The fight in Massachusetts. The educational awakening in 
Massachusetts, brought on largely by the work of Horace Mann, 
was to many a rude awakening. Among other things, it re- 
vealed that the old school of the Puritans had gradually been re- 
placed by a new and purely American type of school, with instruc- 
tion adapted to democratic and national rather than religious 
ends. Mr. Mann stood strongly for such a conception of public 
education, and being a Unitarian, and the new State Board of 
Education being almost entirely liberal in religion, an attack. was 
launched against them, and for the first time in our history the 
cry was raised that ''The public schools are Godless schools." 
Those who believed in the old system of religious instruction, 
those who bore the Board or its Secretary personal ill-will, and 
those who desired to break down the Board's authority and stop 
^he development of the public schools, united their forces in this 
first big attack against secular education. Horace Mann was the 
first prominent educator in America to meet and answer the re- 
ligious onslaught. 

A violent attack was opened in both the pulpit and the press. 
It was claimed that the Board was trying to eliminate the Bible 
from the schools, to abolish correction, and to ''make the schools 
a counterpoise to religious instruction at home and in Sabbath 
schools." The local right to demand religious instruction was in- 
sisted upon. 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 383 

Mr. Mann felt that a great public issue had been raised which 
should be answered carefully and fully. In three public state- 
ments he answered the criticisms and pointed out the errors in the 
argument (R. 322). The Bible, he said, was an invaluable book 
for forming the character of children, and should be read without 
comment in the schools, but it was not necessary to teach it there. 
He showed that most of the towns had given up the teaching of the 
Catechism before the establishment of the Board of Education. 
He contended that any attempt to decide what creed or doctrine 
should be taught would mean the ruin of the schools. The attack 
culminated in the attempts of the religious forces to aboHsh the 
State Board of Education, in the legislatures of 1840 and 1841, 
which failed dismally. 

The attempt to divide the school funds. As was stated earlier, 
in the beginning it was common to aid church schools on the same 
basis as the state schools, and sometimes, in the beginnings of 
state aid, the money was distributed among existing schools with- 
out at first estabHshing any public schools. In many Eastern 
cities church schools at first shared in the public funds. 

After the beginning of the forties, when the Roman Catholic in- 
fluence came in strongly with the increase in Irish immigration to 
the United States, a new factor was introduced and the problem, 
which had previously been a Protestant problem, took on a some- 
what different aspect in the form of a demand for a division of the 
school funds. Between 1825 and 1842 the fight was especially 
severe in New York City. In 1825 the City Council refused to 
grant public money to any religious Society, and in 1840 the 
Catholics carried the matter to the State Legislature. 

The legislature deferred action until 1842, and then did the un- 
expected thing. The heated discussion of the question in the city 
and in the legislature had made it evident that, while it might not 
be desirable to continue to give funds to a privately organized 
corporation, to divide them among the quarreling and envious re- 
ligious sects would be much worse. The result was that the legis- 
lature created for the city a City Board of Education, to establish 
real public schools, and stopped the debate on the question of aid 
to religious schools by enacting that no portion of the school 
funds was in the future to be given to any school in which "any 
religious sectarian doctrine or tenet should be taught, inculcated, 
or practiced." Thus the real public-school system of New York 
City was evolved out of this attempt to divide the public funds 



384 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

among the churches. The Public School Society continued for a 
time, but its work was now done, and, in 1853, it surrendered its 
buildings and property to the City Board of Education and dis- 
banded. 

Other States now faced similar demands, but no demand for a 
share in or a division of the public-school funds, after 1840, was 
successful. The demand everywhere met with intense opposi- 
tion, and with the coming of enormous numbers of Irish Cathohcs 
after 1846, and German Lutherans after 1848, the question of the 
preservation of the schools just established as unified state school 
systems now became a burning one. Petitions for a division of 
the funds deluged the legislatures (R. 323), and these were met by 
counter-petitions (R. 324). Mass meetings on both sides of the 
question were held. Candidates for ofhce were forced to declare 
themselves. Anti-Catholic riots occurred in a number of cities. 
The Native- American Party was formed, in 1841, ^' to prevent the 
union of Church and State," and to "keep the Bible in the 
schools." In 1841 the Whig Party, in New York, inserted a 
plank in its platform against sectarian schools. In 1855 the na- 
tional council of the Know-Nothing Party, meeting in Philadel- 
phia, in its platform favored public schools and the use of the 
Bible therein, but opposed sectarian schools. This party carried 
the elections that year in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Con- 
necticut, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Kentucky. 

To settle the question in a final manner legislatures now began 
to propose constitutional amendments to the people of their sev- 
eral States which forbade a division or a diversion of the funds, 
and these were almost uniformly adopted at the first election after 
being proposed. No State admitted to the Union after 1858, ex- 
cept West Virginia, failed to insert such a provision in its first state 
constitution. 

VI. THE BATTLE TO ESTABLISH THE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL 

The elementar}' or common schools which had been established 
in the different States, by 1850, suppHed an elementary or com- 
mon school education to the children of the masses of the people, 
and the primary schools which were added after about 1820, car- 
ried this education downward to the needs of the beginners. In 
the rural schools the American school of the 3 Rs provided for all 
the children, from the little ones up, so long as they could ad- 
vantageously partake of its instruction. Education in advance 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 385 

of this common school training was in semi-private institutions — 
the academies and colleges — in which a tuition fee was charged. 
The next struggle came in the attempt to extend the system up- 
ward so as to provide to pupils, free of charge, a more complete 
education than the common schools afforded. 

The transition Academy. About the middle of the eighteenth 
century a tendency manifested itself, in Europe as well as in 
America, to estabhsh higher schools offering a more practical 
curriculum than the old Latin schools had provided. In America 
it became particularly evident, after the coming of nationahty, 
that the old Latin grammar-school type of instruction, with its 
hmited curriculum and exclusively college-preparatory ends, was 
wholly inadequate for the needs of the youth of the land. The 
result was the gradual dying out of the Latin school and the 
evolution of the tuition Academy, previously referred to briefly 
on page 248. 

The academy movement spread rapidly during the first half of 
the nineteenth century. By 1800 there were 17 academies in 
Massachusetts, 36 by 1820, and 403 by 1850. The greatest period 
of their development was from 1820 to 1830, though they contin- 
ued to dominate secondary education until 1850, and were very 
prominent until after the Civil War. 

One of the main purposes expressed in the endowment or crea- 
tion of the academies was the establishment of courses which 
should cover a number of subjects having value aside from mere 
preparation for college, particularly subjects of a modern nature, 
useful in preparing youths for the changed conditions of society 
and government and business. The study of real things rather 
than words about things, and useful things rather than subjects 
merely preparatory to college, became prominent features of the 
new courses of study. Among the most commonly found new 
subjects were^algebra, astronomy, botany, chemistry, general his- 
tory, United States history, English Hterature, surveying, intellec- 
tual philosophy, declamation, and debating. Being built upon 
instead of running parallel to the common school course, as the 
old Latin grammar school had done, the academies clearly mark 
a transition from the aristocratic and somewhat exclusive college- 
preparatory Latin grammar school of colonial times to the more 
democratic high school of to-day. The academies also served 
a very useful purpose in supplying to the lower schools the best- 
educated teachers of the time. 



386 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




The demand for higher schools. The different movements 
tending toward the building-up of free public-school systems in the 
cities and States, which we have described in this and the preced- 
ing chapter, and which became clearly defined in the Northern 
States after 1825, came just at the time when the Academy had 



12.000 



9.000 



6,000 



- 3.000 



1630 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1916 



Fig. gi. The Development of Secondary Schools in 

THE United States 

The transitional character of the Academy is well shown in this^iagram. 

reached its maximum development. The settlement of the ques- 
tion of general taxation for education, the elimination of the rate- 
bill by the cities and later by the States, the estabhshment of the 
American common school as the result of a long native evolution, 
and the complete estabhshment of public control over the entire 
elementary-school system, all tended to bring the semi-private 
tuition academy into question. Many asked why not extend the 
public-school system upward to provide the necessary higher edu- 
cation for ah in one common state-supported school. 

The demand for an upward extension of the pubhc school, 
which would provide academy instruction for the poor as well as 
the rich, and in one common public higher school, now made itself 
felt. As the colonial Latin grammar school had represented the 
educational needs of a society based on classes, and the academies 
had represented a transition period and marked the growth of a 
middle class, so the rising democracy of the second quarter of the 
nineteenth century now demanded and obtained the democratic 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 387 



high school, supported by the public and equally open to all, to 
meet the educational needs of a new society built on the basis of 
a new and aggressive democracy. Where, too, the academy had 
represented in a way a missionary effort - — that of a few pro- 
viding something for the good of the people (Rs. 319, 325) — 
the high school on the other hand represented a cooperative 
effort on the part of the people to provide something for them- 
selves. 

The first American high school. The first high school in the 
United States was established in Boston, in 182 1 (R. 326). For 
three years it was known as the ''EngHsh Classical School" 
(R. 327), but in 1824 the school appears in the records as the 
"English High School." In 1826 Boston also opened the first 
high school for girls, but abolished it in 
1828, due to its great popularity, and 
instead extended the course of study for 
girls in the elementary schools. 

The Massachusetts Law of 1827. 
Though Portland, Maine, established a 
high school in 182 1, Worcester, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1824, and New Bedford, 
Haverhill, and Salem, Massachusetts, in 
1827, copying the Boston idea, the real 
beginning of the American high school 
as a distinct institution dates from the 
Massachusetts Law of 1827 (R. 328), 
enacted through the influence of Tames The First High School in 

r^ r^ 4. o-T^-i r j^t_i,- THE UNITED STATES 

G. Carter. Inis law formed the basis ^ , ,. , , ^ 

- „ , , . , . . -, , Established at Boston in 182 1. 

of all subsequent legislation m Massa- 
chusetts, and deeply influenced development in other States. 

This Boston and Massachusetts legislation clearly initiated the 
public high-school movement in the United States. It was there 
that the new type of higher school was founded, there that its 
curriculum was outlined, there that its standards were estabhshed, 
and there that it developed earliest and best. 

The struggle to establish and maintain high schools. In many 
States, legislation providing for the estabhshment of high schools 
was attacked in the courts. One of the clearest cases of this came 
in Michigan, in a test case appealed from the city of Kalamazoo, 
and commonly known as the Kalamazoo case. The opiniqn of 
the Supreme Court of the State (R. 330) was so favorable arid so 




388 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

positive that this decision deeply influenced development in 
almost all of the Upper Mississippi Valley States. 

The struggle to establish and maintain high schools in Massa- 
chusetts and New York preceded the development in most other 
States, because there the common school had been established 
earlier. In consequence, the struggle .to extend and complete the 
pubHc-school system came there earlier also. The development 
was likewise more peaceful there, and came more rapidly. In 
Massachusetts this was in large part a result of the educational 
awakening started by James G. Carter and Horace Mann. In 
New York it was due to the early support of Governor De Witt 
Clinton, and the later encouragement and state aid which came 
from the Regents of the University of the State of New York. 
Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire were Hke Massachusetts 
in spirit, and followed closely its example. In Rhode Island and 
New Jersey, due to old conditions, and in Connecticut, due to the 
great decline in education there after 1800, the high school devel- 
oped much more slowly, and it was not until after 1865 that any 
marked development took place in these States. The democratic 
West soon adopted the idea, and established high schools as soon 
as cities developed and the needs of the population warranted. 
In the South the main high-school development dates from rela- 
tively recent times. 

Gradually the high school has been accepted as a part of the 
state common-school system by all the American States, and the 
funds and taxation originally provided for the common schools 
have been extended to cover the high school as well. The new 
States of the West have based their legislation largely on what 
the Eastern and Central States earlier fought out. 

VII. THE STATE UNIVERSITY CROWNS THE SYSTEM 

The colonial colleges. The earlier colleges — Harvard, William 
and Mary, Yale — had been created by the religious-state govern- 
ments of the earher colonial period, and continued to retain some 
state connections for a time after the coming of nationality. As 
it early became evident that a democracy demands intelligence 
on the part of its citizens, that the leaders of democracy are not 
likely to be too highly educated, and that the character of collegi- 
ate instruction must ultimately influence national development, 
efforts were accordingly made to change the old colleges or create 
new ones, the final outcome of which was the creation of state 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 389 

universities in all the new and in most of the older States. The 
evolution of the state university, as the crowning head of the free 
public school system of the State, represents the last phase which 
we shall trace of the struggle of democracy to create a system of 
schools suited to its peculiar needs. 

The close of the colonial period found the Colonies possessed of 
nine colleges. These were all small. For the first fifty years 
of Harvard's history the attendance at the college seldom ex- 
ceeded twenty, and the President did all the teaching. The 
first assistant teacher (tutor) was not appointed until 1699, and 
the first professor not until 1721, when a professorship of divinity 
was endowed. By 1800 the instruction was conducted by the 
President and three professors — divinity, mathematics, and 
"Oriental languages" — assisted by a few tutors who received 
only class fees, and the graduating classes seldom exceeded forty. 
The course was four years in length, and all students studied the 
same subjects. The first three years were given largely to the 
so-called "Oriental languages" — Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. 
In addition, Freshmen studied arithmetic; Sophomores, algebra, 
geometry, and trigonometry; and Juniors, natural (book) science; 
and all were given much training in oratory, and some general 
history was added. The Senior year was given mainly to ethics, 
philosophy, and Christian evidences. The instruction in the 
eight other older colleges, before 1800, was not materially different. 

Growth of colleges by i860. Fifteen additional colleges were 
founded before 1800, and it has been estimated that by that date 
the two dozen American colleges then existing did not have all 
told over one hundred professors and instructors, not less than 
one thousand nor more than two thousand students, or property 
worth over one million dollars. Their graduating classes were 
small. No one of the twenty-four admitted women in any way 
to its privileges. After 1820, with the firmer establishment of the 
Nation, the awakening of a new national consciousness, the devel- 
opment of larger national wealth, and a court decision (p. 391) 
which safeguarded the endowments, interest in the founding of 
new colleges perceptibly quickened, as may be seen from the 
adjoining table, and between 1820 and 1880 came the great period 
of denominational effort. The map shows the colleges estabhshed 
by i860, from which it will be seen how large a part the denomi- 
national colleges played in the early history of higher education 
in the United States. Up to about 1870 the provision of higher 



390 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

education, as had been the case earlier with the provision of 

secondary education by the acade- 

1780-80 7 rnies, had been left largely to private 

1790-99 7 effort. There were, to be sure, a 

1800-09 9 few state universities before 1870, 

1820^29 .............. 22 though usually these were not better 

1830-39 3S than the denominational colleges 

1840-49 42 around them, and often they main- 



1850-59 92 



tained a non-denominational char- 



1860-69 73 

1870-79 61 acter only by preserving a proper 

1880-89 74 balance between the different de- 

2? ^? — nominations in the employment of 

their faculties. Speaking generally, 
Colleges FOUNDED UP TO 1900 ... , . .. tt -^ i <-^ ^ 

. , higher education m the United States 

(After a table by Dexter, corrected by ^ • i i 

U.S. Comr.Educ. data. Only approx- before 1870 was provided Very 

imately correct) j^^^^j^ j^ ^j^^ tuitional Colleges of 

the different religious denominations, rather than by the State. 
Of the 246 colleges founded by the close of the year i860, as shown 
on the map, but 17 were state institutions, and but two or three 
others had any state connections. 

The new national attitude. With the rise of the new demo- 
cratic spirit after about 1820 there came a demand, felt least in 
New England and most in the South and the new States in the 
West, for institutions of higher learning which should represent 
the State. It was argued that colleges were important instru- 
mentalities for moulding the future, that the kind of education 
given in them must ultimately influence the welfare of the State, 
and that higher education cannot be regarded as a private matter. 
The type of education given in these higher institutions, it was 
argued, ''will appear on the bench, at the bar, in the pulpit, and 
in the senate, and will unavoidably aft'ect our civil and religious 
principles." ' For these reasons, as well as to crown our state 
school system and to provide higher educational advantages for 
its leaders, it was argued that the State should exercise control 
over the colleges. 

This new national spirit manifested itself in a number of ways. 
In New York we see it in the reorganization of King's College, 
the rechristening of the institution as Columbia, and the placing 
of it under at least the nominal supervision of the governing edu- 
cational body of the State. In Pennsylvania an attempt was 
made to bring the university into closer connection with the 



AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 391 

State, but this failed. In New Hampshire the legislature tried, 
in 181 6, to transform Dartmouth College into a state institution. 
This act was contested in the courts, and the case was finally 
carried to the Supreme Court of the United States. There it was 
decided, in 18 19, that the charter of a college was a contract, the 
obligation of which a legislature could not impair. 

Effect of the Dartmouth College decision. The effect of this 
decision manifested itself in two different ways. On the one hand 
it guaranteed the perpetuity of endowments, and the great period 
of private and denominational effort (see table, p. 390) now fol- 
lowed. On the other hand, since the States could not change 
charters and transform old establishments, they began to turn 
to the creation of new state universities of their own. Virginia 
created its state university the same year as the Dartmouth case 
decision. The University of North Carolina, which had been 
estabHshed in 1789, and which began to give instruction in 1795, 
but which had never been under direct state control, was taken 
over by the State in 182 1. The University of Vermont, originally 
chartered in 1791, was rechartered as a state university in 1838. 
The University of Indiana was established in 1820. Alabama 
provided for a state university in its first constitution, in 1819, 
and the institution opened for instruction in 1831. Michigan, in 
framing its first constitution preparatory to entering the Union, 
in 1835, made careful provisions for the safeguarding of the state 
university and for establishing it as an integral part of its state 
school system, as Indiana had done in 18 16. Wisconsin provided 
for the creation of a state university in 1836, and embodied the 
idea in its first constitution when it entered the Union in 1848, 
and Missouri provided for a state university in 1839, Mississippi 
in 1844, Iowa in 1847, and Florida in 1856. The state university 
is to-day found in every ''new " State and in some of the " original 
States, and practically every new Western and Southern State 
followed the patterns set by Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin 
and made careful provision for the establishment and maintenance 
of a state university in its first state constitution. 

There was thus quietly added another new section to the 
American educational ladder, and the free public-school system 
was extended farther upward. For a long time small, poorly sup- 
ported by the States, much like the church colleges about them in 
character and often inferior in quality, one by one the state univer- 
sities have freed themselves alike from denominational restric- 



39^ 



A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



tions on the one hand and political control on the other, and have 
set about rendering the service to the State which a state univer- 
sity ought to render. Michigan, the first of our state universities 

to free itself, take its proper place, 
and set an example for others to 
follow, opened in 1841 with two 
professors and six students. In 
1844 it was a httle institution of 
three professors, one tutor, one 
assistant, and one visiting lec- 
turer, had but fifty-three stu- 
dents, and offered but a single 
course of study, consisting chiefly 
of Greek, Latin, mathematics, and 
intellectual and moral science 
(R. 331). As late as 1852 it had 
but seventy-two students, but by 
i860 its remarkable growth as a 
state university had begun, it en- 
rolled five hundred and nineteen. 
The American free public- 
school system now established. 
By the close of the second quarter 
of the nineteenth century, cer- 
tainly by i860, we find the Ameri- 
can public-school system fully 
established, in principle at least, 
in all our Northern States (R. 332) . 
Much yet remained to be done 
to carry into full effect what had 
'^Et.liJoTAZlT been established in principle, but 

Compare this with the ligure on page everywhere democracy^ had won 

321, and the democratic nature of the its fight, and the American pub- 

p^rlnt^'' ''^''°^ '^'^'"^ ""'" ^' ^^' ^ic school, supported by general 

taxation, freed from the pauper- 
school taint, free and equally open to all, under the direction of 
representatives of the people, free from sectarian control, and 
complete from the primary school through the high school, and 
in the Western States through the university as well, was estab- 
lished permanently in American public poHcy. It was a real 
democratic educational ladder that had been created, and not 



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AMERICAN BATTLE FOR FREE SCHOOLS 393 

the typical two-class school system of continental European 
States. The estabHshment of the free public high school and 
the state university represent the crowning achievements of 
those who struggled to found a state-supported educational sys- 
tem fitted to the needs of great democratic States. Probably 
no other influences have done more to unify the American peo- 
ple, reconcile diverse points of view, eliminate state jealousies, 
set ideals for the people, and train leaders for the service of the 
States and of the Nation than the academies, high schools, and 
colleges scattered over the land. They have educated but a 
small percentage of the people, to be sure, but they have trained 
most of the leaders who have guided the American democracy 
since its birth. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Explain the theory of "vested rights " as appHed to private and parochial 
schools. 

2. Does every great advance in provisions for human welfare require a 
period of education and propaganda? Illustrate. 

3. Explain just what is meant by "the wealth of the State must educate 
the children of the State." 

4. Show how the retention of the pauper-school idea would have been 
dangerous to the life of the Republic. 

5. Why were the cities more anxious to escape from the operation of the 
pauper-school law than were the towns and rural districts? 

6. Why were the pauper-school and the rate-bill so hard to eliminate? 

7. Explain why, in America, schools naturally developed from the com- 
munity outward. 

8. Show the gradual transition from church control of education, through 
state aid of church schools, to secularized state schools. 

9. Show why secularized state schools were the only possible solution for 
the United States. 

10. Show that secularization would naturally take place in the textbooks 
and the instruction, before manifesting itself in the laws. 

11. Show how the American academy was a natural development in the 
national life. 

12. Show how the American high school was a natural development after 
the academy. 

13. Show why the high school could be opposed by men who had accepted 
tax-supported elementary schools. Why has such reasoning been aban- 
doned now? 

14. Explain the difference, and illustrate from the history of American edu- 
cational development, between establishing a thing in principle and carry- 
ing it into full effect. 

15. Show why it was natural that higher education should have been left 
largely to denominational eft'ort, before i860. 

16. Was the early argument as to the influence of higher education on the 
State a true argument? Why? 

17. What would have been the probable results had the Dartmouth College 
case been decided the other way? 



394 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

18. Explain why it required so long to get the state universities started on 
their real development. 

19. Show how the opening of collegiate instruction to women was a phase 
of the new democratic movement. 

20. Show how college education has been a unifying force in the national life. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following illustrative selections 
are reproduced: 

316. Mann: The Ground of the Free-School System. 

317. Governor Cleveland: Repeal of the Connecticut School Law. 

318. Mann: On the Repeal of the Connecticut School Law 

319. Gulhver: The Struggle for Free Schools in Norwich. 

320. Address: The State and Education. 

321. Michigan: A Rate-Bill, and a Warrant for Collection. 

322. Mann: On Religious Instruction in the Schools. 

323. Michigan: Petition for a Division of the School Fund. 

324. Michigan: Counter-Petition against a Division. 

325. Connecticut: Act of Incorporation of Norwich Free Academy, 

326. Boston: Establishment of the First American High School. 

327. Boston: The Secondary-School System in 1823. 

328. Massachusetts: The High School Law of 1827. 

329. Gulliver: An Example of the Opposition to High Schools. 

330. Michigan: The Kalamazoo Decision. 

331. Michigan: Program of Studies at University, 1843. 

332. Tappan: The Michigan State System of Public Instruction. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Brown, E. E. The Making of our Middle Schools. 
*Brown, S. W. The Secularization of American Education. 
Cubberley, E. P. Public Education in the United States. 
Dexter, E. G. A History of Education in the United States. 
*Hinsdale, B. A. Horace Mann, and the Common School Revival in the 

United States. 
*Inglis, A. J. The Rise of the High School in Massachusetts. 
Martin, George H. The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School 

System. 
*Mead, A. R. The Development of Free Schools in the United States, as 
Illustrated by Connecticut and Michigan. 
Taylor, James M. Before Vassar Opened. 
*Thwing, Charles F. A History of Higher Education in America. 



CHAPTER XXVII 

EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 

1. SPREAD OF THE STATE-CONTROL IDEA 

The four type nations. We have now traced, in some detail, 
the struggles of forward-looking men to establish national sys- 
tems of education in four great world nations. In each we have 
described the steps by means of which the State gradually super- 
seded the Church in the control of education, and the motives 
and impulses which finally led the State to take over the school as 
a function of the State. The steps and impelling motives and 
rate of transfer were not the same in any two nations, but in each 
of the five the political necessities of the State in time made the 
transfer seem desirable. Time everywhere was required to effect 
the change. The movement began earhest and was concluded 
earhest in the German States, and was concluded last in England. 
In the German States and France the change came rapidly and 
as a result of legislative acts or imperial decrees. In England and 
the United States the transfer took place, as we have seen, only 
in response to the slow development of public opinion. 

This change in control and extension of educational advantages 
was essentially a nineteenth-century movement, and a resultant 
of the new poKtical philosophy and the democratic revolutions of 
the later eighteenth century, combined with the industrial revo- 
lution of the nineteenth century. A new political impulse now 
replaced the earHer religious motive as the incentive for education, 
and education for literacy and citizenship became, during the 
nineteenth century, a new pohtical ideal that has, in time, spread 
to progressive nations all over the world. 

The four great nations whose educational evolution has been 
described in the preceding chapters may be regarded as having 
formed types which have since been copied, in more or less detail, 
by the more progressive nations in different parts of the world. 
The continental European two-class school system, the American 
educational ladder, and the English tendency to combine the two 
and use the best parts of each, have been reproduced in the differ- 
ent national educational systems which have been created by the 
various political governments of the world. The continental 



396 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

European idea of a centralized ministry for education, with an 
appointed head or a cabinet minister in control, has also been 
widely copied. The Prussian two- class plan has been most influ- 
ential among the Teutonic and Slavic peoples of Europe, and has 
also deeply influenced educational development among the Jap- 
anese; English ideas have been extensively copied in the English 
self-governing dominions; and the American plan has been clearly 
influential in Canada, the Argentine, and in China. The French 
centralized plan for organization and administration has been 
widely copied in the state educational organizations of the Latin 
nations of Europe and South America. In a general way it may 
be stated that the more democratic the government of a nation 
has become the greater has been the tendency to break away 
from the two-class school system, to introduce more of an educa- 
tional ladder, and to bring in more of the English conception of 
granting to localities a reasonable amount of local liberty in edu- 
cational affairs. 

Spread of the state-control idea among northern nations. The 
development of schools under the control of the government, and 
the extension of state supervision to the existing religious schools, 
took place in the different cantons of Switzerland, and in Holland, 
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, somewhat contemporaneously 
with the development described for the four type nations. The 
work of Pestalozzi and Fellenberg, and of their disciples and fol- 
lowers, had given an early impetus to the establishment of schools 
and teacher- training in the Swiss cantons, most being done in the 
German-speaking portions. 

Finland should also be classed with these northern nations in 
matters of educational development. Lutheran ideas as to reli- 
gion and the need for education took deep hold there at an early 
date (p. 158). A knowledge of reading and the Catechism was 
made necessary for confirmation as early as 1686, and democratic 
ideas also found an early home among this people. In conse- 
quence the Finns have for long been a literate people. The law 
making elementary education a function of the State, however, 
dates only from 1866, and secondary education was taken over 
from the ecclesiastical authorities only in 1872. 

Similarly, Scotland, another northern nation, began schools as 
a phase of its Reformation fervor. During the eighteenth cen- 
tury the parish schools, created by the Acts of 1646 (R. 179; 
p. 178) and 1696, proved insufficient, and voluntary schools were 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 397 

added to supplement them. Together these insured for Scotland 
a much higher degree of literacy than was the case in England. 
The final state organization of education in Scotland dates from 
the Scottish Education Act of 1872. 

The map reproduced here, showing the progress of general 
education by the close of the nineteenth century, as measured by 




I I Less than 1 ' 

'■ ■'"■' 1 to 6 % / . ^.dES^ 

lululluin 12tOl6% ^ ^- ^^ /^^----=/ 

^^20 to 30% ) ^ 

ILLITERACY 

About 40% I y->- ^ / Y-.-.; ■ AS^ c =r -e^^-s:=:— giz^^ Fi:=;s^ yj 

%S|60to75% I J^Y ^ /V •• -^.vC ""^ ^ 

INLANDV 

^^Over 85% / 

^ ^^"^ y^-i ^^-^^-^' -^ -^ -=^- 

^-^J\_^ "\ ^ GERMANY ^^'^-' , _^^ 

^ ^^^^^fED/^P ^IIIS" '^'^>' 'C ASIlA, MINOR 

Fig. 94. The Progress of Literacy in Europe by the Close or the 
Nineteenth Century 





the spread of the ability to read and write, reveals at a glance the 
high degree of literacy of the northern Teutonic and mixed Teu- 
tonic nations. It was among these nations that the Protestant 
Reformation ideas made the deepest impression; it was in these 
northern States that the Protestant elementary vernacular school, 
to teach reading and religion, attained its earliest start; it was 
there that the school was taken over from the Church and erected 
into an effective national instrument at an early date; and it was 
these nations which had been most successful, by the close of the 
nineteenth century, in extending the elements of education to all 
and thus producing literate populations. 



398 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The state-control idea in the south and east of Europe. As we 

pass to the south and east of Europe we pass not only to lands 
which remained loyal to the Roman Church, or are adherents of 
the Greek Church, and hence did not experience the Reformation 
fervor with its accompanying zeal for education, but also to lands 
untouched by the French-Revolution movement and where 
democratic ideas have only recently begun to make any progress. 
Greece alone forms an exception to this statement, a constitu- 
tional government having been estabhshed there in 1843. Re- 
moved from the main stream of European civilization, these 
nations have been influenced less by modern forces; the hold of 
the Church on the education of the young has there been longest 
retained; and the taking-over of education by the State has there 
been longest deferred. In consequence, the schools provided 
have for long been inadequate both in number and scope, and the 
progress of Hteracy and democratic ideas among the people has 
been slow. 

The state-control idea in the English self-governing dominions. 
The English and French settlers in Ontario, Quebec, and the 
Maritime Provinces of Canada brought the English and French 
parochial-school ideas from their home -lands with them, but 
these home conceptions were materially modified, at an early 
date, by settlers from the northern States of the American Union. 
These introduced the New England idea of state control and 
public responsibility for education. In part copying precedents 
recently estabhshed in the new American States, as an outcome 
of the struggles there to estabhsh free, tax- supported, and state- 
controlled schools, both Ontario and Quebec early began the 
estabhshment of state systems of education for their people. A 
superintendent of education was appointed in Ontario in 1844, 
"and the Common School Act of 1846 laid the foundation of the 
state school system of the Province. In the law of 187 1 a system 
of uniform, free, compulsory, and state-inspected schools was 
definitely provided for. Quebec, in 1845, made the ecclesiastical 
parish the unit for school administration; in 1852 appointed 
government inspectors for the church schools; and in 1859 pro- 
vided for a Council of Public Instruction to control all schools in 
the Province. The' Dominion Act of 1867 left education, as in 
the United States, to the several Provinces to control, and state 
systems of education, though with large liberty in religious in- 
struction, or the incorporation of the religious schools into the 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 399 

state school systems, have since been erected in all the Canadian 
Provinces. Following American precedents, too, a thoroughly 
democratic educational ladder has almost everywhere been cre- 
ated, substantially like that shown in the Figure on page 392. 

In Australia and New Zealand education has similarly been 
left to the different States to handle, but a state centralized con- 
trol has been provided there which is more akin to French practice 
than to English ideas. In each State, primary education has been 
made free, compulsory, secular, and state-supported. The laws 
making such provision in the different States date from 1872, in 
Victoria; 1875, i^ Queensland; 1878, in South Australia, West 
AustraHa, and New Zealand; and 1880, in New South Wales. 
Secondary education has not as yet been made free, and many 
excellent privately endowed or fee-supported secondary schools, 
after the Enghsh plan, are found in the different States. 

In the new Union of South Africa all university education has 
been taken over by the Union, while the existing school systems 
of the different States are rapidly being taken over and expanded 
by the state governments, and transformed into constructive 
instruments of the States. 

The state-control idea in the South American States. As we 
have seen in chapter xx, the spirit of nationality awakened by 
the French Revolution soon spread to South America, and be- 
tween 181 5 and 182 1 all of Spain's South American colonies re- 
volted, declared their independence from the mother country, 
and set up constitutional repubhcs. Brazil, in 1822, in a similar 
manner severed its connections from Portugal. The United 
States, through the Monroe Doctrine (1826), helped these new 
States to maintain their independence. For approximately half 
a century these States, isolated as they were- and engaged in a 
long and difficult struggle to evolve stable forms of govern- 
ment, left such education as was provided to private individ- 
uals and societies and to the missionaries and teaching orders 
of the Roman Church. After the middle of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, the new forces stirring in the modern world began to be 
felt in South America as well, and, after about 1870, a well- 
defined movement to establish state school systems began to be 
in evidence. 

The Argentine constitution of 1853 had directed the establish- 
ment of primary schools by the State, but nothing of importance 
was done until after the election of Dr. Sarmiento as President, in 



400 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

1868. Under his influence an American- type normal school was 
established, teachers were imported from the United States, and 
liberal appropriations for education were begun. In 1873 a 
general system of national aid for primary education was estab- 
lished, and in 1884 a new law laid the basis of the present state 
school system. 

In Chili, the constitution of 1833 declared education to be of 
supreme importance, and a normal school was established in San- 
tiago, as early as 1840. The basic law for the organization of a 
state system of primary instruction, however, dates from i860, 
and the law organizing a state system of secondary and higher 
education from 1872. 

In Peru, an educational reform movement was inaugurated in 
1876, but the war with Chili (1879-84) checked all progress. In 
1896 an Educational Commission was appointed to visit the 
United States and Europe, and the law of 1901 marked the crea- 
tion of a ministry for education and the real beginnings of a state 
school system. 

The Brazilian constitution of 1824 left education to the several 
States (twenty and one Federal District), and a permissive law 
of 1827 allowed the different States to establish schools. It was 
not until 1854, however, that public schools were organized in 
the Federal District, and these mark the real beginning of state 
education in Brazil. Since then the estabHshment of state schools 
has gradually extended to the coast States, and inland with the 
building of railway lines and the opening-up of the interior to 
outside influences. The basis for state-controlled education has 
now been laid in all the States, but the attendance at the schools 
as yet is small. 

In some of the other South American States, such as Bolivia, 
Ecuador, and Venezuela, but little progress in extending state- 
con troUed schools has as yet been made, and the training of the 
young is still left largely to private effort, the Church, and the 
religious orders. The state-control idea, though, has been defi- 
nitely established in principle in these countries. 

The state-school idea in eastern Asia. In 1854 Admiral Perry 
effected the treaty of friendship with Japan which virtually opened 
that nation to the influences of western civihzation, and one of the 
most wonderful transformations of a people recorded in history 
soon began. In 1867 a new Mikado came to the throne, and in 
1868 the small military class, which had ruled the nation for some 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 



401 



Fk 



T3 T 



24 



d 



19 

18 
17 
16 

15 
14 
13 



K 



seven hundred years, gave up their power to the new ruler. A 
new era in Japan, known as the Meiji, dates from this event. 
In 187 1 the centuries-old feudal system was abolished, and all 
classes in the State were declared equal before the law. This 
same year the first newspaper in Japan was begun. In 1872 the 
first educational code for the nation was promulgated by the 
Mikado. This ordered the general establishment of schools, 
the compulsory education of the people (R. 334 a), and the 
equahty of all classes in educational matters. Students were 
now sent abroad, especially to Germany and the United States; 
foreign teachers were imported; an American normal- school 
teacher was placed in charge of the newly opened state normal 
school; the American class method of instruction was introduced; 
schoolbooks and teaching appa- 
ratus were prepared, after Ameri- 
can models; middle schools were 
organized in the towns; higher 
schools were opened in the cities; 
and the old Academy of Foreign 
Languages was evolved (1877) into 
the University of Tokyo. In 1884 
the study of EngHsh was intro- 
duced into the courses of the public 
schools. In 1889 a form of consti- 
tution was granted to the people, 
and a parliament established. 

Adapting the continental Euro- 
pean idea of a two-class school 
system to the pecuHar needs of 
the nation, the Japanese have 
worked out, during the past half- 
century, a type of state-controlled 
school system which has been well 
adapted to their national needs. 
Instruction in national moraHty, 
based on the ancestral virtues, 
brotherly affection, and loyalty to 
the constitution and the ruling 
class (R. 334 b-c), has been well worked out in their schools. 
Though the government has remained largely autocratic in 
form, the Japanese have, however, retained throughout all their 






TransfecPoint 
11 

10 
m 

8 S 



Fig. 95. The Japanese Two- 
Class School System 



402 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



educational development the fundamental democratic principle 
enunciated in the Preamble to the Educational Code of 1872 
(R. 334 a), viz., that every one without distinction of class or 
sex shall receive primary education at least, and that the oppor- 
tunity for higher education shall be open to all children. So com- 
pletely has the education of the people been conceived of as one 
of the most important functions of the State that all education 

has been placed under a central- 
ized state control, with a Cabinet 
Minister in charge of all admin- 
istrative matters connected with 
the education of the nation. 

Since near the end of the nine- 
teenth century what promises to 
be an even more wonderful trans- 
formation of a people — political, 
social, scientific, and industrial 
— has been talang place in China 
(R. 335). A much more demo- 
cratic type of national school sys- 
tem than that of the Japanese has 
been worked out, and this the 
new (191 2) RepubHc of China is 
rapidly extending in the prov- 
inces, and making education a 
very important function of the 
new democratic national life. In 
the beginning, when displacing 
the centuries-old Confucian ed- 
ucational system, the Chinese 
adopted Japanese ideas and organized their schools (1905) some- 
what after the Japanese model. Later on, responding to the 
influence of many American-educated Chinese and to the more 
democratic impulses of the Chinese people, the new government 
established by the Republic of 191 2 changed the school system at 
first established so as to make it in type more like the American 
educational ladder. The new Chinese school system is shown in 
the drawing on this page. The university instruction is modern 
and excellent, and the addition of the cultural and scientific knowl- 
edge worked out in western Europe to the intellectual qualities 
of this capable people can hardly fail to result, in time, in the 




Fig. 96. The Chinese 
Educational Ladder 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 403 

production of a wonderful modern nation, probably in one of the 
greatest nations of the mid-twentieth century. 

In 1891 the independent Kingdom of Siam, awakened from its 
age-long isolation by new world influences, sent a prince to Europe 
to study and report on the state systems of education maintained 
there. As a result of his report a department of public education 
was created, which later evolved into a ministry of public instruc- 
tion, and elementary schools were opened by the State in the thir- 
teen thousand old Buddhist temples. Since this beginning, higher 
schools of law, medicine, agriculture, engineering, and military 
science have been added, taught largely by imported English and 
American teachers. In consequence of the new educational or- 
ganization, and the new influences brought in, the whole life of 
this little kingdom has been transformed during the past three 
decades. 

General acceptance of the state-function conception. The 
different national school systems, the creation of which has so far 
been briefly described, are typical and represent a great world 
movement which characterized the latter half of the nineteenth 
century. This movement is still under way, and increasing in 
strength. Other state school organizations might be added to the 
list, but those so far given are sufficient. Beginning with the na- 
tions which were earliest to the front of the onward march of civi- 
Hzation, the movement for the state control of education, itself an 
expression of new world forces and new national needs, has in a 
century spread to every continent on the globe. To-day pro- 
gressive nations everywhere conceive of education for their peo- 
ple as so closely associated with their social, political, and indus- 
trial progress, and their national welfare and prosperity (R. 336), 
that the control of education has come to be regarded as an indis- 
pensable function of the State. State constitutions (R. 333) have 
accordingly required the creation of comprehensive state school 
systems; legislators have turned to education with a new interest; 
bulky state school codes have given force to constitutional man- 
dates; national Hteracy has become a goal; the diffusion of poHti- 
cal intelligence by means of the school has naturally followed the 
extension of the suffrage ; while the many new forces and impulses 
of a modern world have served to make the old religious type of 
education utterly inadequate, and to call for national action to a 
degree never conceived of in the days when religious, private, and 
voluntary educational effort sufficed to meet the needs of the few 



404 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

who felt the call to learn. What a few of the more important of 
these new nineteenth-century forces have been, which have so 
fundamentally modified the character and direction of education, 
it may be worth while to set forth briefly, before proceeding 
further. 

II. NEW MODIFYING FORCES 

The advance of scientific knowledge. The first and most im- 
portant of these nineteenth-century forces, and the one which 
preceded and conditioned all the others, was the great increase of 
accurate knowledge as to the forces and laws of the physical world, 
arising from the application of scientific method to the investiga- 
tion of the phenomena of the material world (R. 337). During 
the nineteenth century the intellect of man was stimulated to ac- 
tivity as it had not been before since the days when little Athens 
was the intellectual center of the world. What the Revival of 
Learning was to the classical scholars of the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries, the movement for scientific knowledge and its 
apphcation to human affairs was to the nineteenth. It changed 
the outlook of man on the problems of life, vastly enlarged the 
intellectual horizon, and gave a new trend to education and to 
scholarly effort. What the scholars of the seventeenth and eight- 
eenth centuries had been slowly gathering together as interesting 
and classified phenomena, the scientific scholars of the nineteenth 
century organized, interpreted, expanded, and applied. 

In the domain of the physical sciences very important advances 
characterized the century. Chemistry, up to the end of the first 
quarter of the nineteenth century largely a collection of unrelated 
facts, was transformed by the labors of such men as Dalton 
(1766-1844), Faraday (1791-1867), and Liebig into a wonder- 
fully well-organized and vastly important science. Physics has 
experienced an equally important development. It, too, at the 
beginning of the nineteenth century was in the prehminary state 
of collecting, coordinating, and trying to interpret data. In a 
century physics has, by experimentation and the appHcation of 
mathematics to its problems, been organized into a number of 
exceedingly important sciences. What at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century was a small textbook study of natural philos- 
ophy has since been subdivided into the two great sciences of 
physics and chemistry, and these in turn into numerous well- 
organized branches. 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 405 

In 1830 Charles Lyell applied law to the history of the earth in 
his Principles of Geology, and in 1859 Charles Darwin published 
the results of thirty years of careful biological research in his 
Origin of Species. The former overthrew the earlier theory of 
earthly '' catastrophes," while the latter swept away the old 
theory of special and individual creation which had been cher- 
ished since early antiquity, and substituted in its place the reign 
of law in the field of biological life. These substituted the prin- 
ciple of orderly evolution for the old theory of special creation, 
marked forward steps in human thinking, and gave an entirely 
new direction to the study of world development and natural 
history. 

In 1856 the German Virchow (1821-1902) made his far-reach- 
ing contribution of cellular pathology to medical science; between 
1859 and 1865 the French scientist Pasteur (1822-95) established 
the germ theory of fermentation, putrefaction, and disease; about 
the same time the English surgeon Listei' (1827-1914) began to 
use antiseptics in surgery; and, in 1879, the bacillus of typhoid 
fever was found. Out of this work the modern sciences of pa- 
thology, aseptic surgery, bacteriology, and immunity were created, 
and the cause and mode of transmission of the great diseases 
which once decimated armies and cities — plague, cholera, 
malaria, typhoid, typhus, yellow fever, dysentery — as well as 
the scourges of tuberculosis, diphtheria, and lockjaw, have been 
determined. The importance of these discoveries for the future 
welfare and happiness of mankind can scarcely be overestimated. 
Sanitary science arose as an appHcation of these discoveries, and 
since about 1875 a sanitary and hygienic revolution has taken 
place. 

The above represent but a few of the more important of the 
many great scientific advances of the nineteenth century. What 
the thinkers of the eighteenth century had sowed broadcast 
through a general interest in science, their successors in the nine- 
teenth reaped as an abundant harvest. The fruitfulness of the 
Baconian method (p. 210) in the hands of his successors far sur- 
passed his most sanguine expectations. 

The applications of science and the result. All this work, as 
has been frequently pointed out (R. 338), had of necessity to pre- 
cede the applications of science to the arts and to the advance- 
ment of the comforts and happiness of mankind. The new stud- 
ies soon caught the attention of younger scholars; special schools 



4o6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

for their study began to be established by the middle of the nine- 
teenth century; enthusiastic students of science began forcefully 
to challenge the centuries-long supremacy of classical studies; 
funds for scientific research began to be provided; the printing- 
press disseminated the new ideas; and thousands of applications 
of science to trade and industry and human welfare began to at- 
tract public attention and create a new demand for schools and 
for a new extension of learning. During the past century the ap- 
plications of this new learning to matters that intimately touch 
the life of man have been so numerous and so far-reaching in their 
effects that they have produced a revolution in life conditions un- 
like anything the world ever experienced before. In all the 
days from the time of the Crusades to the end of the Napoleonic 
Wars the changes in hving effected were less, both i*n scope and 
importance, than have taken place in the century since Napoleon 
was sent to Saint Helena. 

This transformation we call the Industrial Revolution. Since 
the middle of the nineteenth century, with the very rapid 
development of factories, the building of railroads, and the ex- 
tension of steamship Hues, even the most remote countries have 
been affected by the new forces. Nations long primitive and 
secluded have been modernized and industrialized; century-old 
trades and skills have been destroyed by machinery; the old home 
and village industries have been replaced by the factory system; 
cities for manufacturing and trade have everywhere experienced a 
rapid development; and even on the farm the agricultural meth- 
ods of bygone days have been replaced by the discoveries of 
science and the products of invention. Almost nothing is done 
to-day as it was a century ago, and only in remote places do peo- 
ple live as they used to live. 

Living conditions a century ago. A century ago people every- 
where lived comparatively simple lives. The steam engine, 
while beginning to be put to use (p. 266), had not as yet been ex- 
tensively appUed and made the willing and obedient slave of man. 
The lightning had not as yet been harnessed, and the now om- 
nipresent electric motor was then still unknown. Only in Eng- 
land had manufacturing reached any large proportions, and even 
there the methods were somewhat primitive. Thousands of 
processes which we now perform simply and effectively by the 
use of steam or electric power, a century ago were done slowly 
and painfully by human labor. The chief sources of power were 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 407 




Fig. 97. Man Power before the 
Days or Steam 

Foot power a century ago. (From a cut 
by Anderson, America's first important 
engraver) 



then man and horse power. The home was a center in which 
most of the arts and trades were practiced, and in the long 
winter evenings the old crafts 
and skills were turned to com- 
mercial account. What every 
family used and wore was 
largely made in the home, the 
village, or the neighborhood. 

Change in living conditions 
to-day. In a century all has 
been changed. Steam and 
electricity and sanitary sci- 
ence have transformed the 
world ; the railway, steamship, 
telegraph, cable, and printing- 
press have made the world 
one. The output of the fac- 
tory system has transformed living and labor conditions, even 
to the remote corners of the world; sanitary science and sanitary 
legislation have changed the primitive conditions of the home 
and made of it a clean and comfortable modern abode; men 
and women have been freed from an almost incalculable amount 
of drudgery and toil, and the human effort and time saved may 
now be devoted to other types of work or to enjoyment and learn- 
ing. Thousands who once were needed for menial toil on farm or 
in shop and home are now freed for employment in satisfying 
new wants and new pleasures that mankind has come to know, 
or may devote their time and energies to forms of service that 
advance the welfare of mankind or minister to the needs of the 
human spirit. 

Despite certain unfortunate results following the change from 
age-old working conditions, the century of transition has seen the 
laboring man making gains unknown before in history, and the 
peasant has seen the abohtion of serfdom and feudal dues. 
Homes have gained tremendously. The drudgery and wasteful 
toil have been greatly mitigated. To-day there is a standard of 
comfort and sanitation, even for those in the humblest circum- 
stances, beyond all previous conceptions. The poorest workman 
to-day can enjoy in his home lighting undreamed of in the days of 
tallow^ candles; warmth beyond the power of the old smoky soft- 
coal grate; food of a variety and quality his ancestors never knew; 



4o8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

kitchen conveniences and an ease in kitchen work wholly un- 
known until recently; and sanitary conveniences and conditions 
beyond the reach of the wealthiest half a century ago. The caste 
system in industry has been broken down, and men and their 
children may now choose their occupations freely, and move 
about at will. Wages have greatly increased, both actually and 
relatively to the greatly improved standard of living. The work 
of women and children is easier, and all work for shorter hours. 
Child labor is fast being eliminated in all progressive nations. In 
consequence of all these changes for the better, people to-day have 
a leisure for reading and thinking and personal enjoyment en- 
tirely unknown before the middle of the nineteenth century, and 
governments everywhere have found it both desirable and neces- 
sary to provide means for the utilization of this leisure and the 
gratification of the new desires. Along with these changes has 
gone the development of the greatest single agent for spreading 
liberalizing ideas — the modern newspaper — " the most inveter- 
ate enemy of absolutism and reaction." Despite censorships, 
suppressions, and confiscations, the press has by now established 
its freedom in all enlightened lands, and the cylinder press, the 
telegraph, and the cable have become ''indispensable adjuncts to 
the development of that power which every absolutist has come to 
dread, and with which every prime minister must daily reckon." 

III. EFFECT OF THESE CHANGES ON EDUCATION 

General result of these changes. The general result of the 
vast and far-reaching changes which we have just described is 
that the intellectual and political horizon of the working classes 
has been tremendously broadened; the home has been completely 
altered; children now have much leisure and do little labor; and 
the common man at last is rapidly coming into his own. Still 
more, the common man seems destined to be the dominant force 
in government in the future. To this end he and his children 
must be educated, his wife and children cared for, his home pro- 
tected, and governments must do for him the things which satisfy 
his needs and advance his welfare. The days of the rule of a 
small intellectual class and of government in the interests of such 
a class have largely passed, and the political equality which the 
Athenian Greeks first in the western world gave to the "citizens" 
of little Athens, the Industrial Revolution has forced modern and 
enlightened governments to give to all their people. In conse- 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 409 

quence, real democracy in government, education, justice, and 
social welfare is now in process of being attained generally, for the 
first time in the history of the world. 

The effect of all these changes in the mode of living of peoples 
is written large on the national life. The political and industrial 
revolutions which have marked the ushering-in of the modern age 
have been far-reaching in their consequences. The old home life 
and home industries of an earlier period are passing, or have 
passed, never to return. Peoples in all advanced nations are rap- 
idly swinging into the stream of a new and vastly more complex 
world civilization, which brings them into contact and competi- 
tion with the best brains of all mankind. At the same time a 
great and ever-increasing specialization of human effort is taking 
place on all sides, and with new and ever more difficult social, po- 
litical, educational, industrial, commercial, and human-life prob- 
lems constantly presenting themselves for solution. The world 
has become both larger and smaller than it used to be, and even 
its remote parts are now being linked up, to a degree that a cen- 
tury ago would not have been deemed possible, with the future 
welfare of the nations which so long bore the brunt of the struggle 
for the preservation and advancement of civihzation. 

These changes and the school. It is these vast and far-reach- 
ing political, industrial, and social changes which have been the 
great actuating forces behind the evolution and expansion of the 
state school systems which we have so far described. The Ameri- 
can and French political revolutions, with their new philosophy 
of political equality and state control of education, clearly inaugu- 
rated the movement for taking over the school from the Church 
and the making of it an important instrument of the State. The 
extension of the suffrage to new classes gave a clear political mo- 
tive for the school, and to train young people to read and write 
and know the constitutional bases of liberty became a political 
necessity. The industrial revolution which followed, bringing in 
its train such extensive changes in labor and in the conditions 
surrounding home and child life, has since completely altered the 
face of the earlier educational problem. What was simple once 
has since become complex, and the complexity has increased with 
time. Once the abihty to read and write and cipher distinguished 
the educated man from the uneducated; to-day the man or woman 
who knows only these simple arts is an uneducated person, hardly 
fit to cope with the struggle for existence in a modern world, and 



410 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

certainly not fitted to participate in the complex political and in- 
dustrial life of which, in all advanced nations, he or she to-day 
forms a part. 

It is the attempt to remould the school and to make of it a 
more potent instrument of the State for promoting national con- 
sciousness (R. 340) and political, social, and industrial welfare 
that has been behind the many changes and expansions and ex- 
tensions of education which have marked the past half-century 
in all the leading world nations, and which underlie the most 
pressing problems in educational readjustment to-day. From 
mere teaching institutions, engaged in imparting a little re- 
ligious instruction and some knowledge of the tools of learning, 
the school, in all the leading nations, has to-day been transformed 
into an institution for advancing national welfare. ^The leading 
purpose now is to train for political and social efficiency in the 
more democratic types of governments being instituted among 
peoples, and to impart to the young those industrial and social 
experiences once taught in the home, the trades, and on the farm, 
but which the coming of the factory system and city life have 
deprived them otherwise of knowing. J 

j Education a constructive national tool. One result of the many 
/political, social, and industrial changes of a century has been to 
evolve education into the great constructive tool of modem po- 
litical society. For ages a church and private affair, and of no 
great importance for more than a few, it has to-day become the 
prime essential to good government and national progress, and is 
so recognized by the leading nations of the world. As people are 
freed from autocratic rule and take upon themselves the functions 
of government, and as they break loose from their age-old politi- 
cal, social, and industrial moorings and swing out into the current 
of the stream of modern world-civihzation, the need for the educa- 
tion of the masses to enable them to steer safely their ship of 
state, and take their places among the stable governments of a 
modern world, becomes painfully evident. In the hands of an un- 
educated people a democratic form of government is a dangerous 
instrument, while the proper development of natural resources 
and the utilization of trade opportunities by backward peoples, 
without being exploited, is almost impossible. In Russia, Mex- 
ico, and the Central American "republics" we see the results of a 
democracy in the hands of an uneducated people. There, too 
often, the revolver instead of the ballot box is used to settle pub- 



EDUCATION BECOMES A NATIONAL TOOL 411 

lie issues, and instead of orderly government under law we find 
injustice and anarchy. A general system of education that will 
teach the fundamental principles of constitutional liberty, and 
apply science to production in agriculture and manufacturing, 
is almost the only solution for such conditions. 

Expansion of the educational idea. In all lands to-day where 
there is an intelligent government, the education of the people 
through a system of state-controlled schools is regarded as of the 
first importance in moulding and shaping the destinies of the na- 
tion and promoting the country's welfare. Beginning with edu- 
cation to impart the ability to read and write and cipher, and as 
an aid to the political side of government, the education of the 
masses has been so expanded in scope during the century that to- 
day it includes aims, classes, types of schools, and forms of service 
scarcely dreamed of at the time the State began to take over the 
school from the Church, with a view to extending elementary edu- 
cational advantages and promoting literacy and citizenship. 
What some of the more important of these expansions have been 
we shall state in a following chapter, but before doing so let us re- 
turn to another phase of the problem — that of the progress of 
educational theory — and see what have been the main lines of 
this progress in the theory as to the educational purpose since the 
time when Pestalozzi formulated a theory for the secular school. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. What does the emphasis on the People's High Schools in Denmark indi- 
cate as to the political status of the common people there? 

2. Explain the educational prominence of Finland, compared with its 
neighbor Russia. 

3. Show the close relation between the character of the school system devel- 
oped in Japan and the character of its government. In China. 

4. Show why the state-function conception of education is destined to be 
the ruling plan everywhere. 

5. Show the close connection between the Industrial Revolution and a 
somewhat general diffusion of the fundamental principles revealed by 
the study of science. 

6. Show how the Industrial Revolution has created entirely new problems 
in education, and what some of these are. 

7. Show the connection between the Industrial Revolution and political 
enfranchisement. 

8. Enumerate some of the educational problems we now face that we should 
not have had to deal with had the Industrial Revolution not taken place. 

9. Why has the result of these changes been to extend the period of depend- 
ence and tutelage of children? 

10. Outline an educational solution of the problem of Mexico. Of Russia. 
Of Persia. 

11. Describe the expansion of the educational idea since the days when 
Pestalozzi formulated the theory for the secular school. 



412 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

12. Contrast the American and the European secondary school in purpose. 
Why should the American be a free school, while those in Europe are 
tuition schools? 

13. Show why the essentially democratic school system maintained in the 
United States would not be suited to an autocratic form of government. 

14. Show that the weight of a priesthood and the force of religious instruc- 
tion in the schools would be strong supports for monarchical forms of 
government. 

15. Homogeneous monarchical nations look after the training of their teach- 
ers much better than does such a cosmopolitan nation as the United 
States. Why? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following illustrative selections 
are reproduced: 
333- Switzerland: Constitutional Provisions as to Education and Religious 

Freedom. 
334» Japan: The Basic Documents of Japanese Education. 
{a) Preamble to the Education Code of 1872. 
{b) Imperial Rescript on Moral Education. 
{c) Instructions as to Lessons on Morals. 

335. Ping Wen Kuo: Transformation of China by Education. 

336. Mann: Education and National Prosperity. 

337. Huxley: The Recent Progress of Science. 

338. Anon.: Scientific Knowledge must precede Invention. 

339. Ticknor: Illustrating Early Lack of Communication. 

340. Monroe: The Struggle for National Realization. 

. 341. Buisson, F.: The French Teacher and the National Spirit. 

342. Fr. de Hovre: The German Emphasis on National Ends. 

343. Stuntz: Landing of the Pilgrims at Manila 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Buisson, F. and Farrington, F. E. French Educational Ideals of To-day. 
Butler, N. M. ''Status of Education at the Close of the Century"; in 

Proceedings National Education Association, 1900, pp. 188-96. 
Davidson, Thos. "Education as World Building"; in Educational Re- 
view, vol. XX, pp. 325-45. (November, 1900.) 
Doolittle, Wm. H. Inventions of the Century. 

Foster, M. "A Century's Progress in Science"; in Educational Review, 
vol. XVIII, pp. 313-31. (November, 1899.) 
*Friedel, V. H. The German School as a War Nursery. 
Gibbons, H. de B. Economic and Industrial Progress of the Century. 
Hughes, J. L., and Klemm, L. R. Progress of Education in the Nineteenth 
Century. 
*Huxley, Thos. "The Progress of Science"; in his Methods and Results. 
*Kuo, Ping Wen. The Chinese System of Public Education. 
Lewis, R. E. The Educational Conquest of the Far East. 
Macknight, Thos. Political Progress of the Century. 
*Ross, E. A. "The World Wide Advance of Democracy "; in his Changing 
America. 
Routledge, R. A Popular History of Science. 
Sandiford, Peter, Editor. Comparative Education. 
*Sedgwick, W. T., and Tyler, H. W. A Short History of Science. 
*Thwing, C. F. Education in the Far East. 
Webster, W. C. General History of Commerce. 
White, A. D. The Warfare of Science and Theology. 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
NEW CONCEPTIONS OF THE EDUCATIONAL PROCESS 

I. THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION OF ELEMENTARY 
INSTRUCTION 

The beginnings of normal-school training. The training of 
would-be teachers for the work of instruction is an entirely mod- 
ern proceeding. The first normal school estabhshed anywhere 
was that founded at Rheims, in northern France, in 1.685^^;^ Abb? / / 
de la Salle (p. 183). He had founded the Order of "The Brothers 
of the Christian Schools" the preceding year, to provide free re- 
ligious instruction for children of the working classes in France 
(R. 182), and he conceived the new idea of creating a special 
school to train his prospective teachers for the teaching work of 
his Order. In addition to imparting a general education of the 
type of the time, and a thorough grounding in religion, his student 
teachers were trained to teach in practice schools, under the 
direction of experienced teachers. This was an entirely new idea. 

The beginnings elsewhere, as we have previously pointed out 
were made in German lands, Francke's Seminarian PrcBceptorum, 
established at Halle in 1697, coming next in point of time. 
In_i738Johann Julius Hecker (1707-68), one of Francke's teach- 
ers at Halle, established the first regular Seminary for Teach- 
ers in Prussia, and in 1748 he estabhshed a private Lehrer- 
seminar in Berlin. In these two institutions he first showed the 
German people the possibilities of special training for secondary- 
school teachers, Something like a dozen Teachers' Seminaries 
had been founded in German lands before the close of the eight- 
eenth century. A normal school was established in Denmark, 
by royal decree, as early as 1789, and five additional schools 
when the law organizing public instruction in Denmark was 
enacted, in 18 14. In France the beginnings of state action came / .. 
with the action of the National Convention, which decreed the f '■ 
establishment of the ''Superior Normal School for France," in / 
1794 (p. 328). This institution, though, was short lived, and the A 
real beginnings of the French higher normal school awaited the I 

reorganizing work of Napoleon, in 1808 (p. 328; R. 283). * 

The schools just mentioned represent the first institutions in 



414 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the history of the world organized for the purpose of training 
teachers to teach. The teachers they trained were intended pri- 
marily for the secondary schools, and the training given was largely 
academic in character. So long as the instruction in the vernacu- 
lar school consisted chiefly of reading and the Catechism, and of 
hearing pupils recite what they had memorized, there was of 
course but little need for any special training for the teachers. 
It was not until after Pestalozzi had done his work and made his 
contribution that there was anything worth mentioning to train 
teachers for. 

Pestalozzi^s contribution. The memorable work done by 
Pestalozzi in Switzerland, during his quarter-century (1800-25) 
of effort at Burgdorf and Yverdon, changed the whole face of the 
preparation of teachers problem. His work was so fundamental 
that it completely redirected the education of children. Taking 
the seed- thought of Rousseau that sense-impression was 'Hhe 
only true foundation of human knowledge" (R. 267), he enlarged 
this to the conception of the mental development of human 
beings as being organic, and proceeding according to law. (His 
extension of this idea of Rousseau's led him to declare that educa- 
tion was an individual development, a drawing-out and not a 
pouring-in; that the basis of all education exists in the nature of 
man; and that the method of education is to be sought and con- 
structed. These were his great contributions. These ideas 
fitted in well with the rising tide of individualism which marked 
the late eighteenth and the early nineteenth centuries, and upon 
these contributions the modern secular elementary school has 
been built. 

These ideas led Pestalozzi to emphasize sense perception and 
expression; to formulate the rule that in teaching we must pro- 
ceed from the concrete to the abstract; and to construct a "fac- 
ulty psychology" which conceived of education as ''a harmoni- 
ous development" of the different ''faculties" of the mind. He 
also tried, unsuccessfully to be sure, to so organize the teaching 
process that eventually it could be so "mechanized" that there 
would be a regular A, B, C, for each type of instruction, which, 
once learned, would give perfection to a teacher. Largely out 
of these ideas and the new direction he gave to instruction the 
modern normal school for training teachers for the elementary 
schools arose. 

Oral and objective teaching developed. Up to the time of 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 415 

Pestalozzi, and for years after he had done his work, in many 
lands and places the instruction of children continued to be of 
the memorization of textbook matter and of the recitation type. 
The children learned what was down in the book, and recited the 
answers to the teacher. Many of the early textbooks were con 
structed on the plan of the older Catechism — that is, on a ques- 
tion and answer plan (R. 351 a). There was nothing for children 
to do but to memorize such text book material, or for the teacher 
but to see that the pupils knew the answers to the questions. It 
was school-keeping, not teaching, that teachers were engaged in. 
The form of instruction worked out by Pestalozzi, based on 
sense-perception, reasoning, and individual judgment, called for a 
comxplete change in classroom procedure. What Pestalozzi tried 
most of all to do was to get children to use their senses and their 
minds, to look carefully, to count, to observe forms, to get, by 
means of their five important senses, clear impressions and ideas 
as to objects and hfe in the world about them, and then to think 
over what they had seen and be able to answer his questions, be- 
cause they had observed carefully and reasoned clearly. Pesta- 
lozzi thus clearly subordinated the printed book to the use of 
the child's senses, and the repetition of mere words to clear 
ideas about things. Pestalozzi thus became one of the first real 
teachers. 

This was an entirely new process, and for the first time in his- 
tory a real ''technique of instruction" was now called for. De- 
pendence on the words of the text could no longer be relied upon. 
The oral instruction of a class group, using real objects, called for 
teaching skill. The class must be kept naturally interested and 
under control; the essential elements to be taught must be kept 
clearly in the mind of the teacher; the teacher must raise the right 
kind of questions, in the right order, to carry the class thinking 
along to the right conclusions; and, since so much of this type of 
instruction was not down in books, it called for a much more ex- 
tended knowledge of the subject on the part of the teacher than 
the old type of school-keeping had done. The teacher must now 
both know and be able to organize and direct. Class lessons 
must be thought out in advance, and teacher-preparation in itself 
meant a great change in teaching procedure. Emancipated from 
dependence on the words of a text, and able to stand before a class 
full of a subject and able to question freely, teachers became con- 
scious of a new strength and a professional skill unknown in the 



4i6 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

days of textbook reciting. Out of such teaching came oral lan- 
guage lessons, drill in speech usage, elementary science instruc- 
tion, observational geography, mental arithmetic, music, and 
drawing, to add to the old instruction in the Catechism, reading, 
writing, and ciphering, and all these new subjects, taught accord- 
ing to Pestalozzian ideas as to purpose, called for an individual 
technique of instruction. 

The normal school finds its place. These new ideas of Pesta- 
lozzi proved so important that during the first five or six decades 







%^^s^/ 






Fig. 98. The First Modern Normal School 

The old castle at Yverdon, where Pestalozzi's Institute was conducted and his 

greatest success achieved. 



of the nineteenth century the elementary school was made over. 
The new conception of the child as a slowly developing personal- 
ity, demanding subject-matter and method suited to his stage of 
development, and the new conception of teaching as that of di- 
recting mental development instead of hearing recitations and 
"keeping school," now replaced the earlier knowledge-conception 
of school work. Where before the ability to organize and dis- 
cipline a school had constituted the chief art of instruction, now 
the ability to teach scientifically took its place as the prime pro- 
fessional requisite. A ''science and art" of teaching now arose; 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 417 

methodology soon became a great subject; the new subject of 
pedagogy began to take form and secure recognition; and psy- 
chology became the guiding science of the school. As these 
changes took place, the normal school began to come into favor 
in the leading countries of Europe and in the United States, and 
in time has established itself everywhere as an important edu- 
cational institution. 

On July 3, i8^.9^_Jiie first state normal school in the United 
States opened in the town hall at Lexington, Massachusetts, with 
one teacher and three students. Later that same year a second 
state normal school was opened at Barre, and early the next year 
a third at Bridgewater, both in Massachusetts. For these the 
State Board of Education adopted a statement as to entrance re- 
quirements and a course of instruction (R. 350 b) which shows 
well the academic character of these early teaching institutions. 
Their success was largely due to the enthusiastic support given 
the new idea by Horace Mann. In an address at the dedication 
of the first building erected in America for normal-school purposes, 
in 1846, he expressed his deep belief as to the fundamental im- 
portance of such institutions (R. 350 c). By i860 eleven state 
normal schools had been established in eight of the States of the 
American Union, and six private schools were also rendering simi- 
lar services. Closely related was the Teachers' Institute, first 
definitely organized by Henry Barnard in Connecticut, in 1839, 
to offer four- to six- weeks summer courses for teachers in service, 
and these had been organized in fifteen of the American States by 
i860. Since 1870 the establishment of state normal schools has 
been rapid in the United States, two hundred having been estab- 
lished by 1910, and many since. The United States, though, is as 
yet far from having a trained body of teachers for its elementary 
schools. For the high schools, it is only since about 1890 that the 
professional training of teachers for such service has really been 
begun. 

Spread of the normal-school idea. The movement for the 
creation of normal schools to train teachers for the elementary 
schools has in 'time spread to many nations. As nation after na- 
tion has awakened to the desirability of establishing a system of 
modern-type state schools, a normal school to train leaders has 
often been among the first of the institutions created. The 
normal school, in consequence, is found to-day in all the conti- 
nental European States; in all the English self-governing domin- 



4i8 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

ions; in nearly all the South American States; and in China, 
Japan, Siam, the Philippines, Cuba, Algiers, India, and other less 
important nations. In all these there is an attempt, often reach- 
ing as yet to but a small percentage of the teachers, to extend to 
them some of that training in the theory and art of instruction 
which has for long been so important a feature of the education of 
the elementary teacher in the German States, France, and the 
United States. Since about 1890 other nations have also begun 
to provide, as the German States and France have done for so 
long, some form of professional training for the teachers intended 
for their secondary schools as well. 

Psychology becomes the master science. Everywhere the es- 
tablishment of normal schools has meant the acceptance of the 
newer conceptions as to child development and the nature of the 
educational process. These are that the child is a slowly develop- 
ing personality, needing careful study, and demanding subject- 
matter and method suited to his different stages of development. 
The new conception of teaching as that of directing and guiding 
the education of a child, instead of hearing recitations and ''keep- 
ing school," in time replaced the earlier knowledge-conception of 
school work. Psychology accordingly became the guiding science 
of the school, and the imparting to prospective teachers proper 
ideas as to psychological procedure, and the proper methodology 
of instruction in each of the different elementary-school subjects, 
became the great work of the normal school. Teachers thus 
trained carried into the schools a new conception as to the nature 
of childhood; a new and a minute methodology of instruction; 
and a new enthusiasm for teaching; — all of which were impor- 
tant additions to school work. 

A new methodology was soon worked out for all the subjects 
of instruction, both old and new. The centuries-old alphabet 
method of teaching reading was superseded by the word and 
sound methods ; the new oral language instruction was raised to a 
position of first importance in developing pupil- thinking; spelling, 
word-analysis, and sentence-analysis were given much emphasis 
in the work of the school; the Pestalozzian merttal arithmetic 
came as an important addition to the old ciphering of sums; the 
old writing from copies was changed into a drill subject, requiring 
careful teaching for its mastery; the "back to nature" ideas of 
Rousseau and Pestalozzi proved specially fruitful in the new study 
of geography, which called for observation out of doors, the study 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 419 

of type forms, and the substitution of the physical and human 
aspects of geography for the older political and statistical ; object 
lessons on natural objects, and later science and nature study, 
were used to introduce children to a knowledge of nature and to 
train them in thinking and observation; while the new subjects of 
music and drawing came in, each with an elaborate technique of 
instruction. 

By 1875 the normal school in all lands was finding plenty to do, 
and teaching, by the new methods and according to the new psy- 
chological procedure, seemed to many one of the most wonderful 
and most important occupations in the world. 

II. NEW IDEAS FROM HERBARTIAN SOURCES 

The work of Herbart. Taking up the problem as Pestalozzi 
left it, a German by the name of Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776- 
1841) carried it forward by organizing a truer psychology for the 
whole educational process, by erecting a new social aim for in- 
struction, by formulating new steps in method, and by showing 
the place and the importance of properly organized instruction in 
history and literature in the education of the child. Though the 
two men were entirely different in type, and worked along en- 
tirely different lines, the connection between Herbart and Pesta- 
lozzi was, nevertheless, close. 

The two "men, however, approached the educational problem 
from entirely different angles. Pestalozzi gave nearly all his long 
life to teaching and human service, while Herbart taught only as 
a traveling private tutor for three years, and later a class of 
twenty children in his university practice school. Pestalozzi was 
a social reformer, a visionary, and an impractical enthusiast, but 
was possessed of a remarkable intuitive insight into child nature. 
Herbart, on the other hand, was a well-trained scholarly thinker, 
who spent the most of his life in the peaceful occupation of a pro- 
fessor of philosophy in a German university. It was while at 
Konigsberg, between 18 10 and 1832, and as an appendix to his 
work as professor of philosophy, that he organized a small prac- 
tice school, conducted a Pedagogical Seminar, and worked out his 
educational theory and method. His work was a careful, schol-' 
arly attempt at the organization of education as a science, carried 
out amid the peace and quiet which a university atmosphere al- 
most alone affords. He addressed himself chiefly to three things: 
(i) the aim, (2) the content, and (3) the method of instruction. 



420 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The aim and the content of education. Locke had set up as 
the aim of education the ideal of a physically sound gentleman. 
Rousseau had declared his aim to be to prepare his boy for Kfe 
by developing naturally his inborn capacities. Pestalozzi had 
sought to regenerate society by means of education, and to pre- 
pare children for society by a "harmonious training" of their 
''faculties." Herbart rejected alike the conventional-social edu- 
cation of Locke, the natural and unsocial education of Rousseau, 
and the" ''faculty-psychology" conception of education of Pesta- 
lozzi. Instead he conceived of the mind as a unity, instead of be- 
ing divided into "faculties," and the aim of education as broadly 
social rather than personal. The purpose of education, he said, 
was to prepare men to live properly in organized society, and 
hence the chief aim in education was not conventional fitness, 
natural development, mere knowledge, nor personal mental 
power, but personal character and social morahty. This being 
the case, the educator should analyze the interests and occupa- 
tions and social responsibilities of men as they are grouped in or- 
ganized society, and, from such analyses, deduce the means and 
the method of instruction. Man's interests, he said, come from 
two main sources — his contact with the things in his environ- 
ment (real things, sense-impressions), and from his relations with 
human beings (social intercourse). His social responsibilities and 
duties are determined by the nature of the social organization of 
which he forms a part. 

Pestalozzi had provided fairly well for the first group of con- 
tacts, through his instruction in objects, home geography, num- 
bers, and geometric form. For the second group of contacts 
Pestalozzi had developed only oral language, and to this Herbart 
now added the two important studies of literature and history, 
and history with the emphasis on the social rather than the politi- 
cal side. Two new elementary-school subjects were thus devel- 
oped, each important in revealing to man his place in the social 
whole. History in particular Herbart conceived to be a study of 
the first importance for revealing proper human relationships, 
and leading men to social and national ''good- will." 

The chief purpose of education Herbart held to be to develop 
personal character and to prepare for social usefulness (R. 355). 
These virtues, he held, proceeded from enough of the right kind of 
knowledge, properly interpreted to the pupil so that clear ideas as 
to relationships might be formed. To impart this knowledge in- 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 421 

terest must be awakened, and to arouse interest in the many kinds 
of knowledge needed, a ''many-sided" development must take 
place. From full knowledge, and with proper instruction by the 
teacher, clear ideas or concepts might be formed, and clear ideas 
ought to lead to right action, and right action to personal charac- 
ter — the aim of all instruction. Herbart was the first writer on 
education to place the great emphasis on proper instruction, and 
to exalt teaching and proper teaching-procedure instead of mere 
knowledge or intellectual discipline. He thus conceived of the 
educational process as a science in itself, having a definite content 
and method, and worthy of special study by those who desire to 
teach. 

Herbartian method. With these ideas as to the aim and con- 
tent of instruction, Herbart worked out a theory of the instruc- 
tional process and a method of instruction (R. 356). Interest he 
held to be of first importance as a prerequisite to good instruc- 
tion. If given spontaneously, well and good; but, if necessary, 
forced interest must be resorted to. Skill in instruction is in part 
to be determined by the ability of the teacher to secure interest 
without resorting to force on the one hand or sugar-coating of the 
subject on the other. Taking Pestalozzi's idea that the purpose 
of the teacher was to give pupils new experiences through contacts 
with real things, without assuming that the pupils already had 
such, Herbart elaborated the process by which new knowledge is 
assimilated in terms of what one already knows, and from his 
elaboration of this principle the doctrine of apperception — that 
is, the apperceiving or comprehending of new knowledge in terms 
of the old — has been fixed as an important principle in educa- 
tional psychology. Good instruction, then, involves first putting 
the child into a proper frame of mind to apperceive the new 
knowledge, and hence this becomes a corner-stone of all good 
teaching method. 

Herbart did not always rely on such methods, holding that the 
''committing to memory" of certain necessary facts often was 
necessary, but he held that the mere memorizing of isolated facts, 
which had characterized school instruction for ages, had little 
value for either educational or moral ends. The teaching of mere 
facts often was very necessary, but such instruction called for a 
methodical organization of the facts by the teacher, so as to make 
their learning contribute to some definite purpose. This called 
for a purpose in instruction; the organization of the facts neces- 



422 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

sary to be taught so as to select the most useful ones; the connec- 
tion of these so as to establish the principle which was the purpose 
of the instruction; and training in systematic thinking by apply- 
ing the principle to new problems of the type being studied. The 
carrying-out of such ideas meant the careful organization of the 
teaching process and teaching method, to secure certain prede- 
termined ends in child development, instead of mere miscella- 
neous memorizing and school-keeping. 

The Herbartian movement in Germany. Herbart died in 184 1, 
without having awakened any general interest in his ideas, and 
they remained virtually unnoticed until 1865. In that year a pro- 
fessor at Leipzig, Tuiskon Ziller (1817-1883), published a book 
setting forth Herbart's idea of instruction as a moral force. This 
attracted much attention, and led to the formation (1868) of a 
scientific society for the study of Herbart's ideas. Ziller and his 
followers now elaborated Herbart's ideas, advanced the theory of 
culture- epochs in child development, the theory of concentration 
in studies, and elaborated the four steps in the process of in- 
struction, as described by Herbart, into the five formal steps 
of the modern Herbartian school. 

In 1874 a pedagogical seminary and practice school was organ- 
ized at the University of Jena, and in 1885 this came under the 
direction of Professor William Rein, a pupil of Ziller's, who de- 
veloped the practice school according to the ideas of Ziller. A 
detailed course of study for this school, filling two large volumes, 
was worked out, and the practice lessons given were thoroughly 
planned beforehand and the methods employed were subjected to 
a searching analysis after the lesson had been given. 

Herbartian ideas in the United States. For a time, under the 
inspiration of Ziller and Rein, Jena became an educational center 
to which students went from many lands. From the work at Jena 
Herbartian ideas have spread which have modified elementary 
educational procedure generally. In particular did the work at 
Jena make a deep impression in the United States. Between 1885 
and 1890 a number of Americans studied at Jena and, returning, 
brought back to the United States this Ziller-Rein-Jena brand of 
Herbartian ideas and practices. From the first the new ideas 
met with enthusiastic approval. 

New methods of instruction in history and hterature, and a 
new psychology, were now added to the normal-school profes- 
sional instruction. Though this psychology has since been out- 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 423 

grown (R. 357), it has been very useful in shaping pedagogical 
thought. New courses of study for the training-schools were now 
worked out in which the elementary-school subjects were divided 
into drill subjects, content subjects, and motor-activity subjects.^ 
Apperception, interest, correlation, social purpose, moral educa- 
tion, citizenship training, and recitation methods became new 
terms to conjure with. From the normal schools these ideas 
spread rapidly to the better city school systems of the time, and 
soon found their way into courses of study everywhere. Practice 
schools and the model lessons in dozens of normal schools were re- 
modeled after the pattern of those at Jena, and for a decade Her- 
bartian ideas and the new child study vied with one another for 
the place of first importance in educational thinking. The Her- 
bartian wave of the nineties resembled the Pestalozzian enthu- 
siasm of the sixties. Each for a time furnished the new ideas in 
education, each introduced elements of importance into the ele- 
mentary-school instruction, each deeply influenced the training of 
teachers in normal schools by giving a new turn to the instruction 
there, and each gradually settled down into its proper place in 
educational practice and history. 

The Herbartian contribution. To the Herbartians we are in- 
debted in particular for important new conceptions as to the 
teaching of history and literature, which have modified all our 
subsequent procedure ; for the introduction of history teaching in 
some form into all the elementary-school grades ; for the emphasis 
on a new social point of view in the teaching of history and geog- 
raphy; for the new emphasis on the moral aim in instruction; for a 
new and a truer educational psychology; and for a better organi- 
zation of the technique of classroom instruction. In particular 
Herbart gave emphasis to that part of educational development 
which comes from without — environment acting upon the child 
— as contrasted with the emphasis Pestalozzi had placed on men- 
tal development from within and according to organic law. With 

^ The studies which have come to characterize the modern elementary school 
may now be classified under the following headings: 

Drill subjects Content subjects Expression subjects 

Reading Literature Kindergarten Work 

Writing Geography Music 

Spelling History Manual Arts 

Language Civic Studies Domestic Arts 

Arithmetic Manners and Conduct Plays and Games 

Nature Study School Gardening 

Agriculture Vocational Subjects 



424 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the introduction of normal child activities, which came from 
another source about this same time, the elementary-school cur- 
riculum as we now have it was practically complete, and the ele- 
mentary school of 1850 was completely made over to form the 
elementary school of the beginning of the twentieth century. 

III. THE KINDERGARTEN, PLAY, AND MANUAL ACTIVITIES 

To another German, Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), v/e are in- 
debted, directly or indirectly, for three other additions to ele- 
mentary education — the kindergarten, the play idea, and hand- 
work activities. 

Origin of the kindergarten. Of German parentage, the son of a 
rural clergyman, early estranged from his parents, retiring and 
introspective by nature, having led a most unhappy childhood, 
and apprenticed to a forester without his wishes being consulted, 
at twenty-three Froebel decided to become a schoolteacher and 
visited Pestalozzi in Switzerland. Two years later he became the 
tutor of three boys, and then spent the years 1808-10 as a student 
and teacher in Pestalozzi 's Institute at Yverdon. During his 
years there Froebel was deeply impressed with the great value of 
music and play in the education of children, and of all that he 
carried away from Pestalozzi's institution these ideas were most 
persistent. After serving in a variety of occupations — student, 
soldier against Napoleon, and curator in a museum of mineralogy 
— he finally opened a little private school, in 181 6, which he con- 
ducted for a decade along Pestalozzian lines. In this the play 
idea, music, and the self-activity of the pupils were uppermost. 
The school was a failure, financially, but while conducting it 
Froebel thought out and published (1826) his most important 
pedagogical work — The Education of Man. 

Gradually Froebel became convinced that the most needed re- 
form in education concerned the early years of childhood. His 
own youth had been most unhappy, and to this phase of education 
he now addressed himself. After a period as a teacher in Switzer- 
land he returned to Germany and opened a school for little chil- 
dren in which plays, games, songs, and occupations involving self- 
activity were the dominating characteristics, and in 1840 he hit 
upon the name Kindergarten for it. In 1843 ^is Mutter- und 
Kose-Lieder, a book of fifty scngs and games, was published. 
This has been translated into almost all languages. 

Spread of the kindergarten idea. After a series of unsuccessful 





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NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 425 

efforts to bring his new idea to the attention of educators, Froebel, 
himself rather a feminine type, became discouraged and resolved 
to address himself henceforth to women, as they seemed much 
more capable of understanding him, and to the training of teach- 
ers in the new ideas. Froebel was fortunate in securing as one 
of his most ardent disciples, just before his death, the Baroness 
Bertha von Marenholtz Biilow-Wendhausen (1810-93), who did 
more than any other person to make his work known. Meeting, 
in 1849, the man mentioned to her as "an old fool," she under- 
stood him, and spent the remainder of her life in bringing to the 
attention of the world the work of this unworldly man who did 
not know how to make it known for himself. In 185 1 the Prus- 
sian Government, fearing some revolutionary designs in the new 
idea, and acting in a manner thoroughly characteristic of the po- 
litical reaction which by that time had taken hold of all German 
official life, forbade kindergartens in Prussia. The Baroness then 
went to London and lectured there on Froebel's ideas, organizing 
kindergartens in the English ''ragged schools." Here, by con- 
trast, she met with a cordial reception. She later expounded 
Froebelian ideas in Paris, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, 
and (after i860, when the prohibition was removed) in Germany, 
In 1870 she founded a kindergarten training-college in Dresden. 
Many of her writings have been translated into English, and pub- 
lished in the United States. 

Considering the importance of this work, and the time which 
has since elapsed, the kindergarten idea has made relatively 
small progress on the continent of Europe. Its spirit does not 
harmonize with autocratic government. In Germany and the 
old Austro-Hungary it had made but little progress up to 1914. 
Its greatest progress in Europe, perhaps, has been in democratic 
Switzerland. In England and France, the two great leaders in 
democratic government, the Infant-School development, which 
came earlier, has prevented any marked growth of the kinder- 
garten. In England, though, the Infant School has recently been 
entirely transformed by the introduction into it of the kinder- 
garten spirit. In France, infant education has taken a some- 
what different direction. 

In the United States the kindergarten idea has met with a most 
cordial reception. In no country in the world has the spirit of the 
kindergarten been so caught and applied to school work, and 
probably nowhere has the original kindergarten idea been so ex,- 



426 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

panded and improved. The first kindergarten in the United 
States was a German kindergarten, established at Watertown, 
Wisconsin, in 1855, by Mrs. Carl Schurz, a pupil of Froebel. 
During the next fifteen years some ten other kindergartens were 
organized in German-speaking communities. The first English- 
speaking kindergarten was opened privately in Boston, in i860, 
by Miss Elizabeth Peabody. In 1868 a private training-college 
for kindergartners was opened in Boston, largely through Miss 
Peabody's influence, by Madame Matilde Kriege and her daugh- 
ter, who had recently arrived from Germany. In 1872 Miss 
Marie Boelte opened a similar teacher-training school in New 
York City, and in 1873 her pupil, Miss Susan Blow, accepted the 
invitation of Superintendent William T. Harris, of St. Louis, to go 
there and open the first public-school kindergarten in the United 
States. 

To-day the kindergarten is found in some form in nearly all 
countries in the world, having been carried to all continents by 
missionaries, educational enthusiasts, and interested govern- 
ments. Japan early adopted the idea, and China is now begin- 
ning to do so. 

The kindergarten idea. The dominant idea in the kindergar- 
ten is natural but directed self-activity, focused upon educational, 
social, and moral ends. Froebel believed in the continuity of a 
child's life from infancy onward, and that self-activity, deter- 
mined by the child's interests and desires and intelligently di- 
rected, was essential to the unfolding of the child's inborn capaci- 
ties. He saw, more clearly than any one before him had done, 
the unutilized wealth of the child's world; that the child's chief 
characteristic is self-activity; the desirability of the child finding 
himself through play; and that the work of the school during 
these early years was to supplement the family by drawing out 
the child and awakening the ideal side of his nature. To these 
ends doing, self-activity, and expression became fundamental to 
the kindergarten, and movement, gesture, directed play, song, 
color, the story, and human activities a part of kindergarten 
technique. Nature study and school gardening were given a 
prominent place, and motor activity much called into play. Ad- 
vancing far beyond Pestalozzi's principle of sense-impressions, 
Froebel insisted on motor-activity and learning by doing (R. 358). 

Froebel, as well as Herbart, also saw the social importance of 
education, and that man must realize himself not independently 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 427 

amid nature, as Rousseau had said, but as a social animal in coop- 
eration with his fellowmen. Hence he made his schoolroom a 
miniature of society, a place where courtesy and helpfulness and 
social cooperation were prominent features. This social and at 
times reverent atmosphere of the kindergarten has always been a 
marked characteristic of its work. To bring out social ideas many 
dramatic games, such as shoemaker, carpenter, smith, and 
farmer, were devised and set to music. The ''story" by the 
teacher was made prominent, and this was retold in language, 
acted, sung, and often worked out constructively in clay, blocks, 
or paper. Other games to develop skill were worked out, and 
use was made of sand, clay, paper, cardboard, and color. The 
''gifts" and "occupations" which Froebel devised were intended 
to develop constructive and aesthetic power, and to provide for 
connection and development they were arranged into an organ- 
ized series of playthings. Individual development as its aim, 
motor-expression as its method, and social cooperation as its 
means were the characteristic ideas of this new school for little 
children (R. 358). 

The contribution of the kindergarten. Wholly aside from the 
specific training given children during the year, year and a half, 
or two years they spend in this type of school, the addition of the 
kindergarten to elementary-school work has been a force of very 
large significance and usefulness. The idea that the child is 
primarily an active and not a learning animal has been given new 
emphasis, and that education comes chiefly by doing has been 
given new force. The idea that a child's chief business is play has 
been a new conception of large educational value. The elimina- 
tion of book education and harsh discipline in the kindergarten 
has been an idea that has slowly but gradually been extended up- 
ward into the lower grades of the elementary school. 

To-day, largely as a result of the spreading of the kindergarten 
spirit, the world is coming to recognize play and games at some- 
thing like their real social, moral, and educational values, wholly 
aside from their benefits as concern physical welfare, and in many 
places directed play is being scheduled as a regular subject in 
school programs. Music, too, has attained new emphasis since 
the coming of the kindergarten, and methods of teaching music 
more in harmony with kindergarten ideas have been introduced 
into the schools. 

Instruction in the manual activities. Froebel not only intro- 



428 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

duced constructive work — paper-folding, weaving, needlework, 
and work with sand and clay and color — into the kindergarten, 
but he also proposed to extend and develop such work for the up- 
per years of schooling in a school for hand training which he out- 
lined, but did not establish. His proposed plan included the ele- 
ments of the so-called manual-training idea, developed later, and 
he justified such instruction on the same educational grounds 
that we advance to-day. It was not to teach a boy a trade, as 
Rousseau had advocated, or to train children in sense-perception, 
as Pestalozzi had employed all his manual activities, but as a 
form of educational expression, and for the purpose of developing 
creative power within the child. The idea was advocated by a 
number of thinkers, about 1850 to i860, but the movement took 
its rise in Finland (1866), Sweden (1872), and Russia. 

Spread of the manual-training idea. France was the first of 
the larger European nations to adopt this new addition to ele- 
mentary-school instruction, a training-school being organized at 
Paris in 1873, and, in 1882, the instruction in manual activities 
was ordered introduced into all the primary schools of France. 
It has required time, though, to provide workrooms and to realize 
this idea, and it is still lacking in complete accomplishment. In 
England the work was first introduced in London, about 1887. 
The government at once accepted the idea, encouraged its spread, 
and began to aid in the training of teachers. By 1900 the work 
was found in all the larger cities, and included cooking and sewing 
for girls, as well as manual work for boys. The training for girls 
goes back still farther, and was an outgrowth of the earlier 
*' schools of industry" established to train girls for domestic serv- 
ice (R. 241). By 1846 instruction in needlework had been begun 
in earnest in England. In German lands needlework was also 
an early school subject, while some domestic training for girls 
had been provided in most of the cities, before 1914. Manual 
training for boys, though, despite much propaganda work, had 
made but little headway up to that time. As in the case of the 
kindergarten, the initiative and self-expression aspects of the 
manual-training movement made no appeal to those responsible 
for the work of the people's schools, and, in consequence, the 
manual activities have in German lands been reserved largely for 
the continuation and vocational schools for older pupils. 

In the United States the manual- training and household-arts 
ideas have found a very ready welcome. Curious as it may seem. 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 429 

the first introduction to the United States of this new form of in- 
struction came through the exhibit made by the Russian govern- 
ment at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, showing the work in 
wood and iron made by the pupils at the Imperial Technical In- 
stitute at Moscow. This, however, was not the Swedish sloyd, 
but a type of work especially adapted to secondary-school in- 
struction. In consequence the movement for instruction in the 
manual activities in the United States, unlike in other nations, 
began (1880) as a highly organized technical type of high-school 
instruction, while the elementary-school sloyd (1882) and the 
household arts (1885) for girls came in later. This type of tech- 
nical high school has since developed rapidly in this country, 
has rendered an important educational service, and is a pecul- 
iarly American creation. In Europe the manual- training idea has 
been confined to the elementary school, and no institution exists 
there which parallels these costly and well-equipped American 
technical secondary schools. 

From a few beginnings in eastern cities the movement spread, 
though at first rather slowly. By 1900 approximately forty cities, 
nearly all of them in the North Atlantic group of States, had in- 
troduced work in manual training and the household arts into 
their elementary schools, but since that time the work has been 
extended to practically all cities, and to many towns and rural 
communities as well. 

Contribution of the manual-activities idea. These new forms 
of school work were at first advocated on the grounds of formal 
discipline — that they trained the reasoning, exercised the powers 
of observation, and strengthened the will. The "exercises," true 
to such a conception, were quite formal and uniform for all. 
With the breakdown of the ''faculty psychology," and the 
abandonment in large part of the doctrine of formal discipline in 
the training of the mind, the whole manual- training and house- 
hold-arts work has had to be reshaped. 

To-day the instruction given in manual work and the house- 
hold arts in all their forms has been further changed to make 
of them educational instruments for interpreting the fields of 
art and industry and home-life in terms of their social signifi- 
cance and usefulness. Through these two new forms of educa- 
tion, also, the pupils in the elementary schools have been given 
training in expression and an insight into the practical work of 
life impossible in the old textbook type of elementary school. In 



430 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

the kindergarten, manual work, and the household arts, Froebel's 
principle of education through directed self-activity and self- 
expression has born abundant fruit. 

In the hands of French, EngHsh, and American educators the 
original manual-arts idea has been greatly expanded. In France 
some form of expression has been worked out for all grades of the 
primary school, and the work has been closely connected with art 
and industry on the one hand and with the home-life of the people 
on the other. In England the project system as applied to indus- 
try, and the household arts with reference to home-life, have been 
emphasized. In the United States the work has been individual- 
ized perhaps more than anywhere else, applied in many new di- 
rections — clay, leather, cement, metal — and used as a very 
important instrument for self-expression and the development of 
individual thinking. 

IV. THE ADDITION OF SCIENCE STUDY 

The gradual extension of the interest in science. A very prom- 
inent feature of world educational development, since about the 
middle of the nineteenth century, has been the general introduc- 
tion into the schools of the study of science. It is no exaggeration 
of the importance of this to say that no addition of new subject- 
matter and no change in the direction and purpose of education, 
since that time, has been of greater importance for the welfare of 
mankind, or more significant of new world conditions, than has 
been the emphasis recently placed, in all divisions of state school 
systems, on instruction in the principles and the applications of 
science. 

The great early development of scientific study had been car- 
ried on in a few universities or had been done by independent 
scholars, and had but little influenced instruction in the colleges 
or the schools below. 

Science instruction reaches the schools but slowly. The text- 
book organization of this new scientific knowledge, for teaching 
purposes, and its incorporation into the instruction of the schools^ 
took place but slowly. 

I . The elementary schools. The greatest and the earliest success 
was made in German lands. There the pioneer work of Basedow 
(p. 294) and the Philanthropinists had awakened a widespread 
interest in scientific studies. In Switzerland, too, Pestalozzi 
had developed elementary science study and home geography, 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 431 

and, when Pestalozzian methods were introduced into the schools 
of Prussia, the study of elementary science (Realien) soon became 
a feature of the Volksschule instruction. From Prussia it spread 
to all German lands. In England the Pestalozzian idea was in- 
troduced into the Infant Schools, though in a very formal fash- 
ion, under the heading of object lessons. In this form elementary 
science study reached the United States, about i860, though 
a decade later well-organized courses in elementary science in- 
struction began to be introduced into the American elementary 
schools. 

2. The secondary schools. In the secondary schools the earliest 
work of importance in introducing the new scientific subjects was 
done by the Germans and the French. In German lands the 
Realschule obtained an early start (1747), and the new instruc- 
tion in mathematics and science it included had begun to be 
adopted by the German secondary schools, especially in the 
South German States, before the period of reaction set in. Dur- 
ing the reign of Napoleon the scientific course in the French Ly- 
cees was given special prominence. After about 181 5, and con- 
tinuing until after 1848, practical and thought-provoking studies 
were under an official ban in both countries, and classical studies 
were specially favored. Finally, in 1852 in France and in 1859 
in Prussia, responding to changed political conditions and new 
economic demands, both the scientific course in the Lycees and 
the Realschulen were given official recognition, and thereafter 
received increasing state favor and support. The scientific idea 
also took deep root in Denmark. There the secondary schools 
were modernized, in 1809, when the sciences were given an im- 
portant place, and again in 1850, when many of the Latin schools 
were transformed into Realskoler. 

In the United States the academies and the early high schools 
both had introduced quite an amount of mathematics and book- 
science, and, after about 1875, the development of laboratory in- 
struction in science in the growing high schools took place rather 
rapidly. Fellenberg's work in Switzerland (p. 302) had also 
awakened much interest in the United States, and by 1830 a 
number of Schools of Industry and Science had begun to appear. 
These made instruction in mathematics and science prominent 
features of their work. 

The challenge of Herbert Spencer. By the middle of the nine- 
teenth century the scientific and industrial revolutions had pro- 



432 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 



duced important changes in the conditions of living in all the then 
important world nations. Particularly in the German States, 
France, England, and the United States had the effects of the 
revolutions in manufacturing and living been felt. In conse- 
quence there had been, for some time, a growing controversy be- 
tween the partisans of the older classical training and the newer 
scientific studies as to their relative worth and importance, both 
for intellectual discipline and as preparation for intelligent living, 
and by the middle of the nineteenth century this had become 
quite sharp. The ''faculty psychology," upon which the theory 
of the discipline of the powers of the mind by the classics was 
largely based, was attacked, and the contention was advanced 
that the content of studies was of more importance in education 
than was method and drill. The advocates of the newer studies 
contended that a study of the classics no longer provided a suita- 
ble preparation for intelligent living, and the question of the rela- 
tive worth of the older and newer studies elicited more and more 
discussion as the century advanced. 

In 1859 one of England's greatest scholars, Herbert Spencer, 
brought the whole question to a sharp issue by the publication of 
a remarkably incisive essay on ''What Knowledge is of Most 
Worth? " In this he declared that the purpose of education was 
to "prepare us for complete living," and that the only way to 

judge of the value of an educational 
course was first to classify, in the 
order of their importance, the lead- 
ing activities and needs of life, and 
then measure the course of study 
by how fully it offers such a prepa- 
ration. Doing so (R. 362), and ap- 
plying such a test, he concluded that 
of all subjects a knowledge of science 
(R. 363) "was always most useful for 
preparation for life," and therefore 
the type of knowledge of most worth. 
In three other essays he recom- 
mended a complete change from the 
classical type of training which had 
dominated English secondary education since the days of the 
Renaissance. Still more, instead of a few being educated by a 
"cultural discipline" for a life of learning and leisure, he urged 




Fig. 99. Herbert Spencer 
(1820-1903) 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 433 

general instruction in science, that all might receive training and 
help for the daily duties of life. 

These essays attracted wide attention, not only in England but 
in many other lands as well. They were a statement, in clear and 
forceful English, of the best ideas of the educational reformers for 
three centuries. In his statement of the principles upon which 
sound intellectual education should be based he merely enunci- 
ated theses for which educational reformers had stood since the 
days of Ratke and Comenius. In his treatment of moral and 
physical education he voiced the best ideas of John Locke. Spen- 
cer's great service was in giving forceful expression to ideas 
which, by i860, had become current, and in so doing he pushed to 
the front anew the question of educational values. The scientific 
and industrial revolutions had prepared the way for a redirection 
of national education, and the time was ripe in England, France, 
German lands, and the United States for such a discussion. As a 
result, though the questions he raised are still in part unsettled, a 
great change in assigned values has since been effected not only in 
these nations, but in most other nations and lands which have 
drawn the inspiration for their educational systems from them. 
Though his work was not specially original, we must nevertheless 
class Herbert Spencer as one of the great writers on educational 
aims and purposes, and his book as one of the great influences 
in reshaping educational practice. He gave a new emphasis 
to the work of all who had preceded him, and out of the discus- 
sion which ensued came a new and a greatly enlarged estimate 
as to the importance of science study in all divisions of the 
school. 

The new educational purpose. It is perhaps not too much to 
say that out of Spencer's gathering-up and forceful statement of 
the best ideas of his time, and the discussion which followed, a new 
conception of the educational purpose as adjustment to the life 
one is to live — physical, economic, social, moral, political — was 
clearly formulated, and a new definition of a liberal education was 
framed. 

The inter-relation between the movement for the study of the 
sciences and the other movements for the improvement of in- 
struction which we have so far described in this chapter, was 
close. Pestalozzi had emphasized instruction in geography and 
the study of nature; Froebel had given a prominent place to na- 
ture study and school gardening; the manual-arts work tended to 



434 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

exhibit industrial processes and relationships; and the scientific 
emphasis on content rather than drill was in harmony with the 
theories of all the modern reformers. Still more, the scientific 
movement was in close harmony with the new individualistic 
tendency of the early part of the nineteenth century, and with the 
movements for the improvement of individual and national wel- 
fare which have been so prominent a characteristic of the latter 
half of the century. 

V. SOCIAL MEANING OF THESE CHANGES 

A century of progress. Pestalozzi, true to the individualistic 
spirit of the age in which he lived and worked, had seen education 
as an individual development, and the ends of education as in- 
dividual ends. The spirit of the French Revolutionary period 
was the spirit of individualism. With the progress of the Indus- 
trial Revolution and the consequent rise of new social problems, 
the emphasis was gradually shifted from the individual to society 
— from the single man to the man in the mass. The first educa- 
tional thinker of importance to see and clearly state this new con- 
ception in terms of the school was Herbart. Seeing the educa- 
tional purpose in far clearer perspective than had those who had 
gone before him, he showed that education must have for its 
function the preparation of man to live in organized society, and 
that character and social morality, rather than individual devel- 
opment, must in consequence be the larger aims. Froebel, pos- 
sessed of something of the same insight, and seeing clearly the 
educational importance of activity and expression, had opened up 
for children a wealth of new contacts with the world about them 
in the new type of educational institution which he created. His 
principles, he said, when thoroughly worked out and applied to 
education ''would revolutionize the world." 

Since this early pioneer work changes in school work have been 
numerous and of far-reaching importance. The methods and 
purpose of instruction in the older subjects have been revised; 
new studies, which would serve to interpret to the young the in- 
dustrial and social revolutions of the nineteenth century, have 
been introduced; the expression-subjects — the domestic arts, 
music, drawing, clay-modeling, color work, the manual arts, na- 
ture study, gardening — have given a new direction to school 
work ; and the study of science and the vocations has attained to a 
place of importance previously unknown. During the past half- 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 435 

century the school has been transformed, in the principal world 
nations, from a disciplinary institution where drill in mastering 
the rudiments of knowledge was given, into an instrument of de- 
mocracy calculated to train young people for living, for useful 
service in the office and shop and home, and to prepare them for 
intelligent participation in the increasingly complex social and 
political and industrial life of a modern world. This transforma- 
tion of the school has not always been easy (R. 365), but the 
vastly changed conditions of modern life have demanded such a 
transformation in all progressive nations. 

The contribution of John Dewey. The foremost American in- 
terpreter, in terms of the school, of the vast social and industrial 
changes which have marked the nineteenth century, is John 
Dewey (1859- ). Better perhaps than anyone else he has 
thought out and stated a new educational philosophy, suited to 
the changed and changing conditions of human living. His work, 
both experimental and theoretical, has tended both to re-psy- 
chologize (R. 364) and socialize education; to give to it a practical 
content, along scientific and industrial lines; and to interpret to 
the child the new social and industrial conditions of modern soci- 
ety by connecting the activities of the school closely with those of )( 
real life. 

Starting with the premises that "the school cannot be a prepa- 
ration for social life except as it reproduces the typical conditions 
of social life "; that "industrial activities are the most influential 
factors in determining the thought, the ideals, and the social or- 
ganization of a people " ; and that " the school should be life, not a 
preparation for living"; Dewey for a time conducted an experi- 
mental school, for children from four to thirteen years of age, to 
give concrete expression to his educational ideas. These, first 
consciously set forth by Froebel, were: 

1. That the primary business of the school is to train in cooperative 
and mutually helpful living. . . . 

2. That the primary root of all educational activity is in the in- 
stinctive, impulsive attitudes and activities of the child, and not 
in the presentation and application of external material. 

3. That these individual tendencies and activities are organized and 
directed through the uses made of them in keeping up the cooper- 
ative living . . . taking advantage of them to reproduce, on the 
child's plane, the typical doings and occupations of the larger, 
maturer society into which he is finally to go forth; and that it is 
through production and creative use that valuable knowledge is 
clinched. 



436 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The work of this school was of fundamental importance in di- 
recting the reorganization of the work of the kindergarten along 
different and larger lines, and also has been of significance in re- 
directing the instruction in both the social subjects — history 
(R. 366), literature, etc. — and the manual, domestic, and artis- 
tic activities of the school. In his subsequent writings he may be 
said to have stated an important new philosophy for the school in 
terms of modern social, political, and industrial needs. 

The Dewey educational philosophy. Believing that the public 
school is the chief remedy for. the ills of organized society, Pro-, 
fessor Dewey has tried to show how to change the work of the 
school so as to make it a miniature of society itself. Social effi- 
ciency, and not mere knowledge, he has conceived to be the end, 
and this social efficiency is to be produced through participation 
in the activities of an institution of society, the school. The dif- 
ferent parts of the school system thus become a unified institu- 
tion, in which children are taught how to live amid the con- 
stantly increasing complexities of modern social and industrial 
life. 

Education, therefore, in Dewey's conception, involves not 
merely learning, but play, construction, use of tools, contact with 
nature, expression, and activity; and the school should be a place 
where children are working rather than listening, learning life by 
living life, and becoming acquainted with social institutions and 
industrial processes by studying them. The work of the school 
is in large part to reduce the complexity of modern life to such 
terms as children can understand, and to introduce the child to 
modern life through simplified experiences. Its primary business 
may be said to be to train children in cooperative and mutually 
helpful living. The virtues of a school, as Dewey points out, are 
learning by doing; the use of muscles, sight and feeling, as well as 
hearing; and the employment of energy, originality, and initia- 
tive. The virtues of the school in the past were the colorless, 
negative virtues of obedience, docility, and submission. Mere 
obedience and the careful performance of imposed tasks he holds 
to be not only a poor preparation for social and industrial effi- 
ciency, but a poor preparation for democratic society and govern- 
ment as well. Responsibility for good government, under any 
democratic form of organization, rests with all, and the school 
should prepare for the political life of to-morrow by training its 
pupils to meet responsibilities, developing initiative, awakening 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 437 

social insight, and causing each to shoulder a fair share of the 
work of government in the school. 

We have now before us the great contributions to a philosophy 
for the educational process made since the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century. Many other workers in different lands, but 
more particularly in German lands, France, Italy, England, and 
the United States, have added their labors to the expansion and re- 
direction of the school. They are too numerous to mention and, 
though often nationally important, need not be included here. 
Still more, the contributions of Pestalozzi, Herbart, Froebel, 
Spencer, Dewey, and their followers and disciples are so inter- 
woven in the educational theory and practice of to-day that it is 
in most cases impossible to separate them from one another. 



QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. How do you explain the long-continued objection to teacher-training? 

2. Contrast "oral and objective teaching" with the former "individual in- 
struction." 

3. Show how complete a change in classroom procedure this involved. 

4. Show how Pestalozzian ideas necessitated a " technique of instruction." 

5. Why is it that Pestalozzian ideas as to language and arithmetic instruc- 
tion have so slowly influenced the teaching of grammar, language, and 
arithmetic? 

6. How do you explain the decline in importance of the once-popular mental 
arithmetic? 

7. Show how child study was a natural development from the Pestalozzian 
psychology and methodology. 

8. Explain what is meant by the statements that Herbart rejected: 

{a) The conventional-social ideal of Locke. 

{b) The unsocial ideal of Rousseau. 

(c) The "faculty-psychology" conception of Pestalozzi. 

9. Explain what is meant by saying that Herbart conceived of education as 
broadly social, rather than personal. 

10. Show in what ways and to what extent Herbart: 

(a) Enlarged our conception of the educational process. 

(b) Improved the instruction content and process. 

11. Explain why Herbartian ideas took so much more quickly in the United 
States than did Pestalozzianism. 

12. State the essentials of the kindergarten idea, and the psychology behind 
it. 

13. State the contribution of the kindergarten idea to education. 

14. Show the connection between the sense impression ideas of Pestalozzi, 
the self-activity of Froebel, and the manual activities of the modern ele- 
mentary school. 

15. Explain why scientific studies came into the schools so slowly, up to 
about i860, and so very rapidly after about that time. 

16. State the comparative importance of content and drill in education. 



438 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

17. Does the reasoning of Herbert Spencer appeal to you as sound? If not, 
why not? 

18. Show how the argument of Spencer for the study of science was also an 
argument for a more general diffusion of educational advantages. 

19. Would schools have advanced in importance as they have done had the 
industrial revolution not taken place? Why? 

20. Why is more extended education called for as "industrial Hfe becomes 
more diversified, its parts narrower, and its processes more concealed"? 

21. Point out the social significance of the educational work of John Dewey. 

22. Point out the value, in the new order of society, of each group of school 
subjects listed in footnote i on page 415. 

23. Contrast the virtues of a school before Pestalozzi's time and those of a 
modern school. 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections illustrative 
of the contents of this chapter are reproduced: 

344. Bache: The German Seminaries for Teachers. 

345. Bache: A German Teachers' Seminary Described. 

346. Bache: A French Normal School Described. 

347. Barnard: Beginnings of Teacher-Training in England. 

348. Barnard: The Pupil-Teacher System Described. 

349. Clinton: Recommendation for Teacher-Training Schools. 
-350. Massachusetts: Organizing the First Normal Schools. 

{a) The Organizing Law. 

{h) Admission and Instruction in. 

(c) Mann: Importance of the Normal School. 

351. Early Textbooks: Examples of Instruction from 

(0) Davenport: History of the United States. 
{b) Morse: Elements of Geography — Map. 
(c) Morse: Elements of Geography. 

352. Murray: A Typical Teacher's Contract. 

353. Bache: The Elementary Schools of Berlin in 1838. 

354. Providence: Grading the Schools of. 

355. Felkin: Herbart's Educational Ideas. 

356. Felkin: Herbart's Educational Ideas Applied. 

357. Titchener: Herbart and Modern Psychology. 

358. Marenholtz-Biilow: Froebel's Educational Views. 

359. Huxley: Enghsh and German Universities Contrasted. 

360. Huxley: Mid-nineteenth-Century Elementary Education in Eng- 

land. 

361. Huxley: Mid-nineteenth-Century Secondary Education in England. 

362. Spencer: What Knowledge is of Most Worth? 

363. Spencer: Conclusions as to the Importance of Science. 

364. Dewey: The Old and New Psychology Contrasted. 

365. Ping: Difficulties in Transforming the School. 

(a) Relating Education to Life. 

{b) The Old Teacher and the New System. 

366. Dewey: Socialization of School Work illustrated by History. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

Barnard, Henry. National Education in Europe. 
*Bowen, H. C. Froebel and Education through Self-Activity* 



NEW CONCEPTIONS OF EDUCATION 439 

Compayre, G. Herbart and Education by Instruction. 
*De Garmo, Chas. Herbart and the Herbartians. 
Dewey, John. The School and Social Progress. (Nine numbers.) 
*Dewey, John. The School and Society. 
Gordy, J. P. Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in the United 
States. Circular of Information, United States Bureau of Education, 
No. 8, 1 89 1. 
Hollis, A. P. The Oswego Movement. 
*Jordan, D. S. " Spencer's Essay on Education"; in Cosmopolitan Maga- 
zine, vol. XXIX, pp. 135-49. (Sept. 1902.) 
Judd, C. H. The Training of Teachers in England, Scotland, and Ger- 
many. (Bulletin 35, 1914, United States Bureau of Education.) 
Monroe, Will S. History of the Pestalozzian Movement in the United 
States. 
*Farker, S. C. History of Modern Elementary Education. 
Ping Wen Kuo. The Chinese System of Public Education. 
Spencer, Herbert. Education ; Intellectual, Moral, and Physical. 
Vanderwalker, N. C. The Kindergarten in American Education. 



CHAPTER XXIX ^ 
NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 
I. POLITICAL 

The enlarged conception of public education. The new ideas as 
to the purpose and functions of the State promulgated by Eng- 
lish and French eighteenth-century thinkers, and given concrete 
expression in the American and French revolutions near the close 
of the century, imparted, as we have seen, a new meaning to the 
school and a new purpose to the education of a people. In the 
theoretical discussion of education by Rousseau and the empiri- 
cal work of Pestalozzi a new individualistic theory for a secular 
school was created, and this Prussia, for long moving in that di- 
rection, first adopted as a basis for the state school system it early 
organized to serve national ends. The new American States, 
also long moving toward state organization and control, early 
created state schools to replace the earlier religious schools; while 
the French Revolution enthusiasts abolished the religious school 
and ordered the substitution of a general system of state schools 
to serve their national ends. 

From these beginnings, as we have seen, the state-3chool idea 
has in course of time spread to all continents, and nations every- 
where to-day have come to feel that the maintenance of a more or 
less comprehensive system of state schools is so closely connected 
with national welfare and progress as to be a necessity for the 
State (R. 367). In consequence, state ministries for education 
have been created in all the important world nations; state and 
local school officials have been provided generally to see that the 
state purpose in creating schools is carried out; state normal 
schools for the preparation of teachers have been established; 
comprehensive state school codes have been enacted or educa- 
tional decrees formulated; and constantly increasing expendi- 
tures for education are to-day derived by taxing the wealth of the 
State to educate the children of the State. 

Change from the original purpose. The original purpose in the 
establishment of schools by the State was everywhere to pro- 
mote literacy and citizenship. Under all democratic forms of 
government it was also to insure to the people the elements of 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 441 

learning that they might be prepared for participation in the 
functions of government. This is well expressed in the quota- 
tions given (p. 287) from early American statesmen as to the need 
for the education of public opinion and the diffusion of knowledge 
among the people. The same ideas were expressed by French 
writers and statesmen of the time, and by the English after the 
passage of the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 (p. 347). With the 
gradual extension of the franchise to larger and larger numbers of 
the people, the extension of educational advantages naturally had 
to follow. The education of new citizens for '' their political and 
civil duties as members of society and freemen '' became a neces- 
sity, and closely followed each extension of the right to vote. In 
all democratic governments the growing complexity of modern 
political society has since greatly enlarged these early duties of 
the school. To-day, in modern nations where general manhood 
suffrage has come to be the rule, and still more so in nations 
which have added female suffrage as well, the continually in- 
creasing complexity of the political, economic, and social prob- 
lems upon which the voters are expected to pass judgment is such 
that a more prolonged period of citizenship education is necessary 
if voters are to exercise, in any intelligent manner, their functions 
of citizenship. In nations where the initiative, referendum, and 
recall have been added, the need for special education along po- 
litical, economic, and social lines has been still further empha- 
sized. 

At first instruction in the common-school branches, with in- 
struction in morals or religion added, was regarded as sufficient. 
In States, such as the German, where religious instruction was re- 
tained in the schools, this has been made a powerful instrument 
in moulding the citizenship and upholding the established order. 
The history of the different nations has also been used by each as 
a means for instilling desired conceptions of citizenship, and some 
work in more or less formal civil government has usually been 
added. To-day all these means have been proven inadequate for 
democratic peoples. In consequence, the work in civil govern- 
ment is being changed and broadened into institutional and com- 
munity civics; the work of the elementary school is being social- 
ized, along the lines advocated by Dewey; and instruction in 
economic principles and in the functions of government is being 
introduced into the secondary schools. Instead of being made 
mere teaching institutions, engaged in promoting Hteracy and 



442 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

diffusing the rudiments of learning among the electorate, schools 
are to-day being called upon to grasp the significance of their 
political and social relationships, and to transform themselves 
into institutions for improving and advancing the welfare of the 
State (R. 368). 

The promotion of nationality. In Prussia the promotion of na- 
tional solidarity was early made an important aim of the school. 
This has in time become a common national purpose, as there has 
dawned upon statesmen generally the idea that a national spirit 
or culture is "an artificial product which transcends social, reli- 
gious, and economic distinctions," and that it "could be manu- 
factured by education" (R. 340). In consequence of this dis- 
covery the school has been raised to a new position of importance 
in the national life, and has become the chief means for develop- 
ing in the citizenship that national unity and national strength so 
desirable under present-day world conditions. In the German 
States, where this function of the school has in recent times been 
perverted to carry forward imperialistic national ends (R. 342) ; in 
France, where it has been intelligently used to promote a rational 
type of national strength (R. 341); in Italy, where divergent ra- 
cial types are being fused into a new national unity; in Cuba, 
Porto Rico, and the Philippines (R. 343) where the United States 
has used education to bring backward peoples up to a new level 
of culture, and to develop in them firm foundations of national 
soHdarity; in China (R. 335) where an ancient people, speaking 
numerous dialects, is making the difficult transition from an old 
culture to the newer western civilization; and in Algiers and Mo- 
rocco, where the spirit of French nationality is being fused into 
dark-skinned tribesmen — everywhere to-day, where pubhc edu- 
cation has really taken hold on the national Hfe, we find the school 
being used for the promotion of national solidarity and the incul- 
cation of national ideals and national culture. To such an extent 
has this become true that practically all the pressing problems 
of the school to-day, in any land, find their ultimate explanation 
in terms of the new nineteenth-century conceptions of political 
nationality. 

Since the development of world trade routes following long rail 
and steamship lines, along which people as well as raw materials 
and manufactured articles pass to and fro, the entrance of new and 
diverse peoples into distant national groups has created a new 
problem of nationalization that before the early nineteenth cen- 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 443 

tury was largely unknown. Previous to the nineteenth century 
the problem was confined almost entirely to peoples conquered 
and annexed by the fortunes of war. To-day it is a voluntary 
migration of peoples, and a migration of such proportions and 
from such distant and unlike civilizations that the problem of as- 
similating the foreigner has become, particularly in the English- 
speaking nations and colonies, to which distant and unrelated 
peoples have turned in largest numbers, a serious national prob- 
lem. The migration of 32,102,671 persons to the United States, 
between 1820 and 1914, from all parts of the world, has been a 
movement of peoples compared with which the migrations of the 
Germanic tribes — Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Goths, Visigoths, Van- 
dals, Suevi, Danes, Burgundians, Huns — into the old Roman 
Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries pale into insignificance. 
No such great movement of peoples was ever known before in his- 
tory, and the assimilative power of the American nation has not 
been equal to the task. The World War revealed the extent of 
the failure to nationalize the foreigner who has been permitted 
to come, and brought the question of ''Americanization" to the 
front as one of the most pressing problems connected with Ameri- 
can national education. With the world in flux racially as it now 
is, the problem of the assimilation of non-native peoples is one 
which the schools of every nation which offers political and eco- 
nomic opportunity to other peoples must face. This has called 
for the organization of special classes in the schools, evening and 
adult instruction, community-center work, nationalization pro- 
grams, compulsory attendance of children, state oversight of 
private and religious schools, and other forms of educational un- 
dertakings undreamed of in the days when the State first took 
over the schools from the Church the better to promote Kteracy, 
and citizenship. 

Effects of the Industrial Revolution. The effects of the great 
industrial and social changes which we have previously described 
are written large across the work of the school. As the civiliza- 
tion in the leading world nations has increased in complexity, and 
the ramifications of the social and industrial life have widened, 
the school has been called upon to broaden its work, and develop 
new types of instruction to increase its effectiveness. An educa- 
tion which was entirely satisfactory for the simpler form of social 
and industrial life of two generations ago has been seen to be ut- 
terly inadequate for the needs of the present and the future. It 



,444 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

is the far-reaching change in social and industrial and home life, 
brought about by the Industrial Revolution, which underlies most 
of the pressing problems in educational readjustment to-day. With 
the ever-increasing subdivision and specialization of labor, the 
danger from class subdivision has constantly increased, and more 
and more the school has been called upon to instill into all a po- 
litical and social consciousness that will lead to unity amid in- 
creasing diversity, and to concerted action for the preservation 
and improvement of the national life. 

More education than formerly has also been demanded to en- 
able future citizens to meet intelligently national and personal 
problems, and with the widening of the suffrage and the spread of 
democratic ideas there has come a necessary widening of the edu- 
cational ladder, so that more of the masses of the people may 
climb. Even in nations having the continental-European two- 
class school system, larger educational opportunities for the 
masses have had to be provided. In the more advanced and more 
democratic nations we also note the establishment of systems of 
evening schools, adult instruction, university extension, science 
and art instruction in special centers, the multiplication of libra- 
ries, and the increasing use of the lecture, the stereopticon, and the 
public press, for the purpose of keeping the people informed. No 
nation has done more to extend the advantages of secondary edu- 
cation to its people than has the United States; France has been 
especially prominent in adult instruction; England has done note- 
worthy work with university extension and science and art instruc- 
tion; while the United States has carried the library movement 
farther than any other land. All these, again, are extensions of 
educational opportunity to the masses of the people in a manner 
undreamed of a century ago. 

University expansion. Within the past three quarters of a cen- 
tury, and in many nations within a much shorter period of time, the 
university has experienced a new manifestation of popular favor, 
and is to-day looked upon as perhaps the most important part, 
viewed from the standpoint of the future welfare of the State, of 
the entire system of public instruction maintained by the State. 
In it the leaders for the State are trained; in it the thinking which 
is to dominate government a quarter-century later is largely done; 
out of it come the creative geniuses whose work, in dozens of 
fields of human endeavor, will mould the political, social, and sci- 
entific future of the nation (R. 369). Every government depend- 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 445 

ing upon a two-class school system must of necessity draw its 
leaders in the professions, in government, in pure and applied sci- 
ence, and in many other lines from the small but carefully se- 
lected classes its universities train. In a democracy, depending 
entirely upon drawing its future leaders from among the mass, 
the university becomes an indispensable institution for the train- 
ing of leaders and for the promotion of the national welfare. In a 
democratic government one of the highest functions of a univer- 
sity is to educate leaders and to create the standards for democ- 
racy. 

The university has, accordingly, in all lands, recently experi- 
enced a great expansion, and in no country has the development 
been more rapid than in the United States and Canada. New 
and important state universities are to-day found in most of the 
American States and Canadian Provinces, some States maintain- 
ing two. These have been relatively recent creations to serve 
democracy's needs, and upon the support of these state universi- 
ties large and increasing sums of money are spent annually. In 
no nation of the world, too, has private benevolence created and 
endowed so many private universities of high rank as in the 
United States, and these have fallen into their proper places as 
auxiliary agents for the promotion of the national welfare in gov- 
ernment, science, art, and the learned professions. The univer- 
sity development since the middle of the nineteenth century has 
been greater than at any period before in world history, and with 
the spread of democracy, dependent as democracy is upon mass 
education to obtain its leaders, the university has become "the 
soul of the State" (R. 369). The university development of the 
next half-century, the world as a whole considered, may possibly 
surpass anything that we have recently witnessed. 

The state school systems as organized. We now find state 
school systems organized in all the leading world nations. In 
many the system of public instruction maintained is broad and 
extensive, beginning often with infant schools or kindergartens, 
continuing up through elementary schools, middle schools, con- 
tinuation schools, secondary schools, and normal schools, and cul- 
minating in one or more state universities. In addition there are 
to-day, in many nations, state systems of scientific and technical 
schools and institutions, and vocational schools and schools for 
special classes, to which we shall refer more in detail a little fur- 
ther on. The support of all these systems of public instruction 



446 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

to-day comes largely from the direct or indirect taxation of the 
wealth of the State. Being now conceived of as essential to the 
welfare and progress of the State, the State yearly confiscates a 
portion of every man's property and uses it to maintain a service 
deemed vital to its purposes. The sums spent to-day on educa- 
tion by modern States seem enormous, compared with the sums 
spent for education under conditions existing a century ago. 
The rapidly increasing expenditures merely record the changing 
political conception as to the national importance of enlarging 
the educational opportunities and advantages of those who are 
to constitute and direct the future State. 

II. SOCIOLOGICAL 

A new estimate as to the value of child life. As we saw in 
chapter xviii, which described the opportunities for and the kind 
of schooling developed up to the middle of the eighteenth century, 
but little of what may be called formal education had been pro- 
vided up to then for the great mass of children, even in the most 
progressive nations. We also noted the extreme brutality of the 
school. Such was the history of childhood, so far as it may be said 
to have had a history at all, up to the rise of the great humanita- 
rian movement early in the nineteenth century. Neglect, abuse, 
mutilation, excessive labor, heavy punishments, and often virtual 
slavery awaited children everywhere up to recent times. The 
sufferings of childhood at home were added to by others in the 
school (p. 244) for such as frequented these institutions. 

Since about 1850 an entirely new estimate has come to be placed 
on the importance of national attention to child, welfare, though 
the beginnings of the change date back much earlier. As we have 
seen (p. 240), England early began to care for the children of its 
poor. In the Poor-Relief and Apprenticeship Law of 1601 (R. 
174) England organized into law the growing practice of a cen- 
tury and laid the basis for much future work of importance. 
In this legislation, as we have seen, the foundations of the Massa- 
chusetts school law of 1642 were laid. In the Virginia laws of 
1643 and 1646 (R. 200 a) and the Massachusetts law of 1660, pro- 
viding for the apprenticeship of orphans and homeless children, 
the beginnings of child-welfare work in the American Colonies 
were made. 

Many of the Catholic religious orders in Europe had for long 
cared for and brought up poor and neglected children, and in 1729 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 447 

the first private orphanage in the new world was established by 
the Ursuline Order in New Orleans. The first pubHc orphan- 
age in America was established in Charleston, South Carolina, 
in 1790; the first in England at Birmingham, in 181 7; and in 1824 
the New York House of Refuge was founded. The latter was the 
forerunner of the juvenile reformatory institutions established 
later by practically all of the American States. These have de- 
veloped chiefly since 1850. To-day most of the American States 
and governments in many other lands also provide state homes 
for orphan and neglected children, where they are clothed, fed, 
cared for, educated, and trained for some useful employment. 

Child-labor legislation. One of the best evidences of the new 
nineteenth-century humanitarianism is to be found in the large 
amount of child-labor legislation which arose, largely after 1850, 
and which has been particularly prominent since 1900. 

Under the earher agricultural conditions and the restricted de- 
mand for education for ordinary life needs, child labor was not 
especially harmful, as most of it was out of doors and under rea- 
sonably good health conditions. With the coming of the factory 
system, the rise of cities and the city congestion of population, 
and other evils connected with the Industrial Revolution, the whole 
situation was changed. Humanitarians now began to demand 
legislation to restrict the evils that had arisen. This demand 
arose earliest in England, and resulted in the earliest legislation 
there. 

The year 1802 is important in the history of child-welfare work 
for the enactment, by the EngHsh Parliament, of the first law to 
regulate the employment of children in factories. This was 
known as the Health and Morals of Apprentices Act (R. 373). 
This Act, though largely ineffectual at the time, ordered impor- 
tant reforms which aroused public opinion and which later bore 
important fruit. By it the employment of work-house orphans 
was limited; it forbade the labor of children under twelve, for 
more than twelve hours a day ; provided that night labor of chil- 
dren should be discontinued, after 1804; ordered that the children 
so employed must be taught reading and writing and ciphering, 
be instructed in religion one hour a week, be taken to church 
every Sunday, and be given one new suit of clothes a year; ordered 
separate sleeping apartments for the two sexes, and not over two 
children to a bed ; and provided for the registration and inspection 
of factories. This law represents the beginnings of modern child- 



448 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

labor legislation. It was 1843 before any further child-labor 
legislation of importance was enacted, and 1878 before a compre- 
hensive child-labor bill was finally passed. In the United States 
the first laws regulating the employment of children and provid- 
ing for their school attendance were enacted by Rhode Island in 
1840, and Massachusetts in 1842. Factory legislation in other 
countries has been a product of more recent forces and times. 

To-day important child-labor legislation has been enacted by 
all progressive nations, and the leading world nations have taken 
advanced ground on the question. All recent thinking is opposed 
to children engaging in productive labor. With the rise of organ- 
ized labor, and the extension of the suffrage to the laboring man, 
he has joined the humanitarians in opposition to his children be- 
ing permitted to labor. From an economic point of view also, all 
recent studies have shown the unprofitableness of child labor and 
the large money- value, under present industrial conditions, of a 
good education. As a result of much agitation and the spread of 
popular education, it has at last come to be a generally accepted 
principle (R. 374) that it is better for children and better for soci- 
ety that they should remain in school until they are at least four- 
teen years of age, and be specially trained for some useful type of 
work. Now shown to be economically unprofitable, and for long 
morally indefensible, child labor is now rapidly being superseded 
by suitable education and the vocational training and guidance of 
youth in all progressive nations. 

Compulsory school-attendance legislation. The natural corol- 
lary of the taxation of the wealth of the State to educate the chil- 
dren of the State, and the prohibition of children to labor, is the 
compulsion of children to attend school that they may receive the 
instruction and training which the State has deemed it wise to 
tax its citizens to provide. 

Except in the German States, compulsory education is a rela- 
tively recent idea, though in its origins it is a child of the Protes- 
tant Reformation theory as to education for salvation. In Ger- 
man lands the compulsory-attendance idea took deep root, and in 
consequence the Germans were the first important modern nation 
to enforce, thoroughly, the education of all. By the middle of 
the eighteenth century the basis was clearly laid in Prussia for 
that enforcement of the compulsion to attend schools which, by 
the middle of the nineteenth century, had become such a notable 
characteristic of all German education. The same compulsory 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 449 

idea early took deep root among the Scandinavian peoples. In 
consequence the lowest illiteracy in Europe, at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century, was to be found (see map, p. 397) among 
the Finns, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and Germans. 

The compulsory-attendance idea died out in America, in the 
Netherlands, and in part in Scotland. In England and in the 
Anglican Colonies in America it never took root. In France the 
idea awaited the work of the National Convention, which (1792) 
ordered three years of education compulsory for all. War and 
the lack of interest of Napoleon in primary education caused the 
requirement, however, to become a dead letter. The Law of 1833 
provided for but did not enforce it, and real compulsory education 
in France did not come until 1882. In England the compulsory 
idea received but Httle attention until after 1870, met with much 
opposition, and only recently have comprehensive reforms been 
provided. In the United States the new beginnings of compul- 
sory-attendance legislation date from the Rhode Island child- 
labor law of 1840, and the first modern compulsory-attendance 
law enacted by Massachusetts, in 1852. By 1885, fourteen 
American States and six Territories had enacted some form of 
compulsory-attendance law. Since 1900 there has been a general 
revision of Americaa state legislation on the subject, with a view 
to increasing and the better enforcement of the compulsory- 
attendance requirements, and with a general demand that the 
National Congress should enact a national child-labor law. 

As a result of this legislation the labor of young children has 
been greatly restricted; work in many industries has been pro- 
hibited entirely, because of the danger to life and health; compul- 
sory education has been extended in a majority of the American 
States to cover the full school year; poverty, or dependent par- 
ents, in many States no longer serves as an excuse for non-attend- 
ance; often those having physical or mental defects also are in- 
cluded in the compulsion to attend, if their wants can be provided 
for; the school census has been changed so as to aid in the location 
of children of compulsory school-attendance age; and special offi- 
cers have been authorized or ordered appointed to assist school 
authorities in enforcing the compulsory-attendance and child - 
labor laws. Having taxed their citizens to provide schools, the 
different States now require children to attend and partake of the 
advantages provided. The schools, too, have made a close study 
of retarded pupils, because of the close connection found to exist 



450 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




between retardation in school and truancy and juvenile delin- 
quency. 

The education of defectives. Another nineteenth-century ex- 
pansion of state education has come in the provision now gener- 
ally made for the education of defectives. To-day the state 

school systems of 
Christian nations gen- 
erally make some pro- 
vision for state insti- 
tutional care, and 
often for local classes 
as well, for the train- 
ing of children who 
belong to the seri- 
ously defective classes 
of society. This work 
is almost entirely a 
product of the new 
humanitarianism of 
modern times. Ex- 
cepting the education 
of the deaf, seriously 
begun a little earlier, all effective work dates from the first half 
of the nineteenth century. At first the feasibility of all such in- 
struction was doubted, and the work generally was commenced 
privately. Out of successes thus achieved, ])ublic institutions 
have been built up to carry on, on a large scale, what was begun 
privately on a small scale. It is now felt to be better for the 
State, as well as for the unfortunates themselves, that they be 
cared for and educated, as suitably and well as possible, for self- 
respect, self-support, and some form of social and vocational 
usefulness. In consequence, the compulsory-attendance laws 
of the leading world States to-day require that defectives, be- 
tween certain ages at least, be sent to a state institution or be 
enrolled in a public-school class specialized for their training. 

Dependents, orphans, children of soldiers and sailors, and in- 
corrigibles of various classes represent others for whom modern 
States have now provided special state institutions. To-day a 
modern State finds it necessary to provide a number of such 
specialized institutions, or to make arrangements with neigh- 
boring States for the care of its dependents, if it is to meet 



Fig. ioo. Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet 

TEACmNG THE DeAF AND DUMB 

From a bas-relief on the monument of Gallaudet, 
erected by the deaf and dumb of the United States, 
in the grounds of the American Asylum, at Hartford, 
Connecticut. 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 451 

what have come to be recognized as its humanitarian educa- 
tional duties. 

Public playgrounds and play directors, vacation schools, juve- 
nile courts, disciplinary classes, parental schools, classes for moth- 
ers, visiting home-teachers and nurses, and child-welfare societies 
and officers, are other means for caring for child life and child wel- 
fare which have all been begun within the past half-century. The 
significance of these additions lies chiefly in that the history of the 
attitude of nations toward their child life is the history of the rise 
of humanitarianism, altruism, justice, order, morality, and civili- 
zation itself. 

The education of superior children. All the work described 
above and relating to the work of defectives, delinquents, and 
children for some reason in need of special attention and care has 
been for those who represent the less capable and on the whole 
less useful members of society — the ones from whom society 
may expect the least. They are at the same time the most costly 
wards of the State. 

Wholly within the second decade of the present century, and 
largely as a result of the work of the French psychologist Alfred 
Binet (1857-1911) we are now able to sort out, for special atten- 
tion, a new class of what are known as superior, or gifted children, 
and to the education of these special attention is to-day here and 
there beginning to be directed. Educationally, it is an attempt to 
do for democratic forms of national organization what a two-class 
school system does for monarchical forms, but to select intellec- 
tual capacity from the whole mass of the people, rather than from 
a selected class or caste. We know now that the number of chil- 
dren of superior ability is approximately as large as the number of 
the feeble in mind, and also that the future of democratic govern- 
ments hinges largely upon the proper education and utilization of 
these superior children. One child of superior intellectual capac- 
ity, educated so as to utilize his talents, may confer greater bene- 
fits upon mankind, and be educationally far more important, than 
a thousand of the feeble-minded children upon whom we have 
recently come to put so much educational effort and expense. 
Questions relating to the training of leaders for democracy's serv- 
ice attain jiew significance in terms of the recent ability to meas- 
ure and grade intelligence, as also do questions relating to grad- 
ing, classification in school, choice of studies, rate of advancement, 
and the vocational guidance of children in school. 



Age 


Worih 


o 


$90 


5 


950 


lO 


2000 


20 


4000 


30 


4100 


40 


3050 


50 


2900 


60 


1650 


70 


15 


80 


-700 



452 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

The new interest in health. Another new expansion of the 

educational service which has come in since the middle of the 

Net Average Worth of a Person nineteenth century, and which has 

recently grown to be one of large 
significance, is work in the medical 
inspection of schools, the supervision 
of the health of pupils, and the new 
instruction in preventive hygiene. 
This is a product of the scientific 
and social and industrial revolu- 
tions which the nineteenth century 

(Calculations by Dr. William Farr, former- -, -, , ^i 4.1. r t_ 'i. 

iy Registrar of Vital Statistics for Great brOUght, rathcr thaU Of humamta- 
Britain. Based on pre-war values) ^.^^ infiuenCCS, End represents aU 

application of newly discovered scientific knowledge to health 
work among children. Its basis is economic, though its results 
are largely physical and educational and social (R. 375). 

The discovery and isolation of bacteria; the vast amount of 
new knowledge which has come to us as to the transmission and 
possibilities for the elimination of many diseases; the spread of 
information as to sanitary science and preventive medicine; the 
change in emphasis in medical practice, from curative to preven- 
tive and remedial; the closer crowding together of all classes of 
people in cities; the change of habits for many from life in the 
open to life in the factory, shop, and apartment; and the growing 
realization of the economic value to the nation of its manhood 
and womanhood; have all alike combined with modern humani- 
tarianism and applied Christianity to make progressive nations 
take a new interest in child health and proper child development. 
European nations have so far done much more in school health 
work than has the United States, though a very commendable 
beginning has been made here. 

Medical fnspection and health supervision. Medical inspec- 
tion of schools began in France, in 1837, though genuine medical 
inspection, in a modern sense, was not begun in France until 1879. 
The pioneer country for real work was Sweden, where health offi- 
cers were assigned to each large school as early as 1868. Norway 
made such appointments optional in 1885, and obligatory in 1891. 
Belgium began the work in 1874. Tests of eyesight were begun 
in Dresden in 1867. Frankfort-on-Main appointed the first Ger- 
man school physician in 1888. England first employed school 
nurses in 1887; and, in 1907, following the revelations as to low 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 453 

physical vitality growing out of the Boer War, adopted a manda- 
tory medical-inspection and health-development act applying to 
England and Wales, and the year following Scotland did the same. 
Argentine and Chili both instituted such service in 1888, and 
Japan made medical inspection compulsory and universal in 
1898. 

In the United States the work was begun voluntarily in Boston, 
in 1894, following a series of epidemics. Chicago organized medi- 
cal inspection in 1895, New York City in 1897, and Philadelphia 
in 1898. From these larger cities the idea spread to the smaller 
ones, at first slowly, and then very rapidly. The first school 
nurse in the United States was employed in New York City, in 
1902, and the idea at once proved to be of great value. In 1906 
Massachusetts adopted the first state medical inspection law. In 
191 2 Minnesota organized the first "State Division of Health 
Supervision of Schools" in the United States, and this plan has 
since been followed by other States. 

From mere medical inspection to detect contagious diseases, in 
which the movement everywhere began, it was next extended to 
tests for eyesight and hearing, to be made by teachers or physi- 
cians, and has since been enlarged to include physical examina- 
tions to detect hidden diseases and a constructive health-program 
for the schools. The work has now come to include eye, ear, nose, 
throat, and teeth, as well as general physical examinations; the 
supervision of the teaching of hygiene in the schools, and to a cer- 
tain extent the physical training and playground activities; and a 
constructive program for the development of the health and phys- 
ical welfare of all children. All this represents a further exten- 
sion of the pubHc-education idea. 

These represent some of the more important new problems in 
education which have come to challenge us since the school was 
taken over from the Church and transformed into the great con- 
structive tool of the State. Their solution will call for careful in- 
vestigation, experimentation, and much clear thinking, and be- 
fore they are solved other new problems will arise. So probably 
it will ever be under a democratic form of government; only in 
autocratic or strongly monarchical forms of government, where 
the study of problems of educational organization and adjust- 
ment are not looked upon with favor, can a school system to-day 
remain for long fixed in type or uniform in character. Education 
to-day has become intricate and difficult, requiring careful pro- 



454 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

fessional training on the part of those who would exercise intelli- 
gent control, and so intimately connected with national strength 
and national welfare that it may be truthfully said to have be- 
come, in many respects, the most important constructive under- 
taking of a modern State. 

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 

1. Show that education must be extended and increased in efficiency in 
proportion as the suffrage is extended, and additional political functions 
given to the electorate. Illustrate. 

2. Trace the changes in the character of the instruction given in the schools, 
paralleling such changes. 

3. Explain the difference in use of the schools for nationaHty ends in Ger- 
many and France. 

4. Of what is the recent development of evening, adult, and extension edu- 
cation an index? 

5. Show why university education is more important in national life to-day 
than ever before in history. 

6. Explain the reasons for the new conceptions as to the value of child life 
which have come within the past hundred years, in all advanced nations. 
Why not in the less advanced nations? 

7. Show the relation between the breakdown of the apprentice system, the 
Industrial Revolution, and the rise of compulsory school attendance. 

8. Show that compulsory school attendance is a natural corollary to general 
taxation for education. 

9. How do you account for the relatively recent interest in the education of 
defectives and delinquents? Of what is this interest an expression? 

10. Does the obligation assumed to educate involve any greater exercise of 
state authority or recognition of duty than the advancement of the 
health of the people and the sanitary welfare of the State? 

SELECTED READINGS 

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections illustrative 
of tne contents of this chapter are reproduced: 

367. McKechnie, W. S.: The Environmental Influence of the State. 

368. Emperor William II.: German Secondary Schools and National 

Ends. 

369. Van Hise, Chas. R.: The University and the State. 

370. -Friend: What the Folk High Schools have done for Denmark. 

371. U.S. Commission: The German System of Vocational Education. 

372. U.S. Commission: Vocational Education and National Prosperity. 

373. De Montmorency: English Conditi ns before the First Factory -Labor 

Act. 
574. Giddings, F. R.: The New Problem of Child Labor. 
375. Hoag, E. B., and Terman, L. M.: Health Work in the Schools. 

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES 

*Allen, E. A. '' Education of Defectives '^ in Buder, N. M., Education in 
the Unikd Skitcs, pp. 771-820, 
Barnard, Henry. National Education in Europe. 



NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS 455 

^Commission on National Aid to Vocational Education, Report, vol. i. 
(Document 1004, H. R., 63d Congress, 2d session, Washington, 1914.) 
Cook, W. A. "A Brief Survey of the Development of Compulsory Edu- 
cation in the United States"; in Elementary School Teacher, vol. 12, 
pp. 331-35- (March, 1912.) 
*Dean, A. D. The Worker and the State. 
Eliot, C. W. Education for Efficiency. 
Farrington, F. E. Commercial Education in Germany. 
Foght, H. W. Rural Denmark and its Schools. 

Friend, L. L. The Folk High Schools of Denmark. (Bulletin No. 3, 1914, 
United States Bureau of Education.) 
*Hoag, E. B., and Terman, L. M. Health Work in the Schools. 
Kandel, I. L. "The Junior High School in European Systems"; in Edu- 
cational Review, vol. 58, pp. 305-29. (Nov. 1919.) 
*Munroe, J. P. New Demands in Education. 
*Payne, G. H. The Child in Human Progress. 
Smith, A. T., and Jesien, W. S. Higher Technical Education in Foreign 
Countries. (Bulletin No. 11, 1917, United States Bureau of Educa- 
tion.) 
Snedden, D. S. Vocational Education. 
*Terman, L. M. The Intelligence of School Children. 
Waddle, C. W. Introduction to Child Psychology, chap. i. 
Ware, Fabian. Educational Foundations of Trade and Industry. 



CONCLUSION; THE FUTURE 

We have now reached the end of the story of the rise and progress 
of man's conscious effort to improve himself and advance the wel- 
fare of his group by means of education. To one who has fol- 
lowed the narrative thus far it must be evident how fully this con- 
scious effort has paralleled the history of the rise and progress of 
western civilization itself. Beginning first among the Greeks — 
the first people in history to be "smitten with the passion for 
truth," the first possessing sufficient courage to put faith in rea- 
son, and the first to attempt to reconcile the claims of the State 
and the individual and to work out a plan of "ordered liberty" — 
a new spirit was born and in time passed on to the western world. 
As Batcher well says (R. ii), " the Greek genius is the European 
genius in its first and brightest bloom, and from a vivifying con- 
tact with the Greek spirit Europe derived that new and mighty 
impulse which we call Progress." Hellenizing first the Eastern 
Mediterranean, and then taking captive her rude conqueror, the 
Hellenization of the Roman and early Christian world was the 
result. 

Then followed the reaction under early Christian rule, and the 
fearful deluge of barbarism which for centuries well-nigh extin- 
guished both the ancient learning and the new spirit. Finally, 
after the long mediaeval night, came "time's burst of dawn," first 
and for a long time confined to Italy, but later extending to all 
northern lands, and in the century of revival and rediscovery and 
reconstruction the Greek passion for truth and the Greek courage 
to trust reason were reawakened, and once more made the heri- 
tage of the western world. Once again the Greek spirit, the spirit 
of freedom and progress and trust in the power of truth, became 
the impulse that was to guide and dominate the future. To fol- 
low reason without fear of consequences, to substitute scientific 
for empirical knowledge, to equip men for intelligent participa- 
tion in civic life, to discover a rational basis for conduct, to unfold 
and expand every inborn faculty and energy, and to fill man with 
a restless striving after an ideal — these essentially Greek charac- 
teristics in time came to be accepted by an increasing number of 
modern men, as they had been by the thoughtful men of the an- 
cient Greek world, as the law and goal of human endeavor. From 



CONCLUSION; THE FUTURE 457 

this point on the intellectual progress of the western world was 
certain, though at times the rate seems painfully slow. 

The great events which stand out in modern history — mile- 
stones, as it were, along the road of the intellectual progress of 
mankind in the recovery of the Greek spirit — were the revival 
of the ancient learning, the Protestant appeal to reason, the re- 
covery and vast extension of the old scientific knowledge, the as- 
sertion of the rights of the individual as opposed to the rights of 
the State, and the growth of a new humanitarianism, induced by 
the teachings of Christianity, which has softened old laws and 
awakened a new conception of the value of child and human Hfe. 
Out of these great historic movements have come modern schol- 
arship, the inestimable boon of religious liberty, the firm estab- 
lishment of the idea of the reign of law in an orderly universe, the 
conception of government as in the interests of the governed, the 
substitution of democracy and political equality for the rule of a 
class or an autocratic power, and the assertion of the right to an 
education at public expense as a birthright of every child. The 
common school, the education of all, equality of rights and op- 
portunity, full and equal sufltrage, the responsibility of all for the 
advancement of the common welfare, and liberty under law have 
been the natural consequences and the outcome of these great 
struggles to set free and quicken the human spirit. 

The Peace of WestphaHa (1648), which marked the close of a 
century of effort to crush human reason and religious liberty with 
violence and oppression, marked a turning-point in the history of 
the world. Though religious intolerance and bigotry might still 
persist in places for centuries to come, this Peace acknowledged 
the futility of persecution to stamp out human inquiry, and 
marked the downfall of intellectual mediaevalism. The work of 
the poHtical philosophers of the eighteenth century, the estab- 
lishment of a new pohtical ideal by the leaders of the American 
Revolution, and the drastic sweeping-away of ancient abuses in 
Church and State in the Revolution in France, applied a new 
spirit to government, ushered in the rule of the common man, and 
began the establishment of democracy as the ruling form of gov- 
ernment for mankind. The recent World War in Europe was in a 
sense a sequel to what had gone before. One result of its out- 
come, despite certain reactionary but temporary old-type gov- 
ernments that the near future may see set up in places, has been 
the elimination of the mediaeval theory of the 'divine right of 



458 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

kings'' from the continent of Europe, and the establishment of 
the democratic type of government as the ruling type of the fu- 
ture. Some of the nations, such as Poland and Jugo-Slavia, for a 
time will be in a sense experimental, and even well-governed Ger- 
many must learn new forms and ways, but in time government of 
and by and for the people is practically certain to become estab- 
lished everywhere on the continent of Europe. 

Still more, the outcome of the World War would seem to indi- 
cate that democratic forms of government are destined in time to 
extend to peoples everywhere who have the capacity for using 
them. The great problem of the coming century, then, and per- 
haps even of succeeding centuries, will be to make democracy a 
safe form of government for the world. This can be done only by 
a far more general extension of educational opportunities and ad- 
vantages than the world has as yet witnessed. In the hands of an 
uneducated proletariat democracy is a dangerous instrument. In 
Russia, Mexico, and in certain of the Central American Republics 
we see what a democracy results in in the hands of an uneducated 
people. There, too often, the revolver instead of the ballot box is 
used to settle public issues, and instead of orderly government 
under law we have a reign of injustice and anarchy. Only by the 
slow but sure means of general education of the masses in charac- 
ter and in the fundamental bases of liberty under law can govern- 
ments that are safe and intelligent be created. In a far larger 
sense than anything we have as yet witnessed, education must be- 
come the constructive tool for national progress. 

The great needs of the modern world call for the general diffu- 
sion among the masses of mankind of the intellectual and spiritual 
and political gains of the centuries, which are as yet, despite the 
great recent progress made in extending general education, the 
possession of but a relatively small number of the world's popula- 
tion. Among the more important of these are the religious spirit, 
coupled with full religious liberty and tolerance; a clear recogni- 
tion of the rights of minorities, so long as they do not impair the 
advancement of the general welfare; the general diffusion of a 
knowledge of the more common truths and applications of science, 
particularly as these relate to personal hygiene, sanitation, agri- 
culture, and modern industrial processes ; the general education of 
all, not only in the tools of knowledge, but in those fundamental 
principles of self-government which lie at the basis of democratic 
life; training in character, self-control, and in the ability to as- 



CONCLUSION; THE FUTURE 459 

sume and carry responsibility; the instilling into a constantly 
widening circle of mankind the importance of fidelity to duty, 
truth, honor, and virtue; the emphasis of the many duties and re- 
sponsibilities which encompass all in the complex modern world, 
rather than the eighteenth-century individualistic conception of 
political and personal rights; the clear distinction between liberty 
and license ; and the conception of liberty guided by law. In addi- 
tion, each man and woman should be educated for personal effi- 
ciency in some vocation or form of service in which each can best 
realize his personal possibilities, and at the same time render the 
largest service to that society of which he forms a part. 

The great needs of the modern world also call for that form of 
education and training which will not merely impart literacy and 
prepare for economic competence and national citizenship, but 
which will give to national groups a new conception of national 
character and international morality and create new standards 
of value for human effort. National character and international 
morality are always the outgrowth of the personality of a people, 
and this in turn calls for the inculcation of humane ideals, the 
proper discipline of the instincts, the training of a will to do right, 
good physical vigor, and, to a large degree, the development of 
individual efficiency and economic competence. Moral and reli- 
gious instruction, as it has been given, will not suffice, because it 
does not reach the heart of the problem. No nation has shown 
more completely the utter futihty of religious instruction to pro- 
duce morality than has Germany, where the instruction of all in 
the principles of religion has been required for centuries. 

The problem of the twentieth century, then, and probably of 
other centuries to come, is how the constructive forces in modern 
society, of which the schools of nations should stand first, can 
best direct their efforts to influence and direct the deeper sources 
of the life of a people, so that the national characteristics it is 
desired to display to the world will be developed because the 
schools have instilled into every child these national ideals. Many 
forces must cooperate in such a task, but unless the schools of 
nations become clearly conscious of national needs and of inter- 
national purposes, become inspired by an ideal of service for the 
welfare of mankind, substitute among national groups competi- 
tion in the things of the spirit — art, architecture, music, sports, 
education, letters, sanitation, housing, public works, and such 
applications of science as minister to health and happiness — for 



46o A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 




competition in the creation of material wealth, the pihng-up of 
armaments, the extension of national boundaries, and the present 
overemphasis of a narrow nationalism, and direct the energies of 
coming generations to the carrying-out of this new and larger 



CONCLUSION; THE FUTURE 461 

human service, nations must inevitably fail to reach the world 
position they might otherwise have occupied, destructive inter- 
national competition and warfare will continue, and the advance- 
ment of world civilization and international well-being will be 
greatly retarded thereby. 

In this work of advancing world civilization, the nations which 
have long been in the forefront of progress must expect to assume 
important roles. It is their peculiar mission — for long clearly 
recognized by Great Britain and France in their political rela- 
tions with inferior and backward peoples; by the United States in 
its excellent work in Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines; and 
clearly formulated in the system of ''mandatories" under the 
League of Nations — • to help backward peoples to advance, and 
to assist them in lifting themselves to a higher plane of world civi- 
lization. In doing this a very practical type of education must 
naturally play the leading part, and time, probably much time, 
will be required to achieve any large results. Disregarding the 
large need for such service among the leading world nations, the 
map reproduced opposite reveals how much of such work 
still remains to be done in the world as a whole. ''The 
White Man's Burden" truly is large, and the larger world tasks 
of the twentieth century for the more advanced nations will be to 
help other peoples, in distant and more backward lands, slowly 
to educate themselves in the difficult art of self-government, 
gradually establish stable and democratic governments of their 
own, and in time to take their places among the enlightened and 
responsible peoples of the earth. 

At the bottom of all this work and service lies the new human- 
hberty conceptions first worked out and formulated for the world 
by little Greece. In time the ideas to which they gave expression 
have become the heritage of what we know as our western civiliza- 
tion, and the warp and woof of the intellectual and political life of 
the modern world. As a result of the Industrial Revolution, and 
of the new political and commercial and social forces of our time, 
this western civilization, using education as its great constructive 
tool, is now spreading to every continent on the globe. The task 
of succeeding centuries will be to carry forward and extend what 
has been so well begun; to level up the peoples of the earth, 
as far as inherent differences in capacity will permit; and to ex- 
tend, through educative influences, the principles and practices of 
a Christian civilization to all. In establishing intelligent and in- 



462 A BRIEF HISTORY OF EDUCATION 

terested government, and in moulding and shaping the destinies 
of peoples, general education has become the great constructive 
tool of modern civilization. A hundred and fifty years ago edu- 
cation was of but little importance, being primarily an instrument 
of the Church and used for church ends. To-day general educa- 
tion is an instrument of government, and is rightfully regarded 
as a prime essential to good government and national progress. 
With the spread of the democratic type the importance of the 
school is enhanced, its control by the State becomes essential, its 
continued expansion to include new types of schools and new 
forms of educational opportunities and service a necessity, the 
study of its organization and administration and problems be- 
comes a necessary function of government, while the training 
it can give is dignified and made the birthright of every boy 
and girl. 



INDEX 



Academy, the, 23; at Venice, 134; in Europe 
and America, 215, 248, 385. 

Act of Conformity, 172; of Supremacy, 159, 
321,358. 

Adelhard, 98. 

Advisory Order of 171 7, 309. 

Agriculture, beginnings of instruction in, 
302. 

Agricultural Institute of Fellenberg, 302 . 

Alcuin, 76-80. 

Alexandria, importance of, in history, 25. 

Alexandrian learning, 25, 381. 

Alfred, King, 81. 

Algemeine Landrecht, the, 313. 

Alhazen, 98. 

America, battles for schools in, 370; begins 
constitutional government, 267; colonial 
colleges in, 388; contributions to world 
history, 268; educational ladder evolved, 
392; effect of Revolutionary War on 
schools, 354; Protestant settlement of, 189; 
public school system, outlines evolved, 362. 

Anglican educational foundations, 170-73. 

Apprenticeship education, 109, 242, 446; 
breakdown of, 449. 

Argentine, The, education in, 399. 

Aristotle, 23, 98, 225, 390; translations of, 
98. 

Arithmetic, in Greece, 11; in Middb Ages, 
160, 280; in Rome, 34; in Seven Liberal 
Arts, 86; first modern texts in, 237. 

Arnold, Matthew, on Guizot, 332. 

Astronomy, in Seven Liberal Arts, 86. 

Athenian education, the new, 19-26; the old, 
8-17. 

Athens, university of, 23 . 

Attica, ancient, 5. 

Australia, education in, 399. 

Austrian reformers, 256. 

Austrian School Code of 1774, 312. 

Averroes, 98. 

Avicenna, 104. 

Baccalaureus, in a mediaeval university, 116. 

Bacon, Sir Francis, 209. 

Bagdad, Mohammedan learning at, 96. 

Balfour Annexation Law of 1912, 348. 

Barbarian migrations, 63-69. 

Barbarian tribes accept Christianity, 66. 

Barnard, Henry, 380-81. 

Basedow, J. B., 294-96 

Battles for education in U.S., 370, 

Bell, Andrew, 339. 

Benedict, St., 54, 99. 

Benedictines, 54, 100. 

Berlin, University of, 319. 



Bible, translation of, 166. 

Bills of Rights, 269, 270. 

Blind, education of, 450. 

Blow, Susan, 426. 

Boccaccio, 132. 

Bologna, law developed at, 102. 

Boston, first high school at, 387. 

Boston Latin School, 193 . 

Brahe, Tycho, 208. 

Brazil, education in, 399, 400. 

British Museum founded, 266. 

Brothers of the Christian Schools, 183, 282, 

329- 
Brougham, Lord, 349. 
Bruno, Giordano, 208. 
Bulow, Baroness, 425. 
Bunyan, John, 265. 
Burgher class, rise of, 107. 
Burgher school, 107, 146, 165, 33I. 

Cadet years, in ancient Greece, 15. 

Cahiers of 1789, 279. 

Calvin, John, 159, 175. 

Calvinists, educational work of, 175-78. 

Campion, teaching of, 150. 

Canada, education in, 398. 

Canon Law organized, 103. 

Carter, James G., 387, 388. 

Catechetical schools, 50. 

Catechism, 166, 202, 236. 

Catechumenal instruction, 50, 

Cathedral schools, 53, 84, 188. 

Cathedral school at York, 76. 

Catherine II of Russia, 258, 278, 511, 715. 

Cato the Elder, 35. 

Certificates, first teachers', 93. 

Cessatio, in mediaeval universities, 115. 

Chalotais, Rene de la, 277. 

Chantry schools, 84. 

Charity school, religious, 240, 336; in New 
Jersey, 375; in Pennsylvania, 373-74- 

Charlemagne, his work, 77-80; his proclama- 
tions, 78-79. 

Childhood, care of, 245, 630. 

Child Labor, 447. 

Chili, education in, 400. 

China, educational system of, 402, 789. 

Chivalric commandments, 91. 

Chivalric education, 88-91. 

Chivalric ideals, 90. 

Christianity, challenge of, 47; contribution 
of, 44-67; influence of, on barbarians, 
66-70; rejects pagan learning, 51; where 
arose, 45. 

Chrysoloras, Manuel, 133. 

Church and elementary education, 182-84; 



INDEX 



early organization of, 150; work of, in 

Middle Ages, 67. 
Cicero, Petrarch discovers work of, 131, 

142. 
Ciceronian style, 147, 150. 213. 
Cities, development of, in U.S., 363; new 

problems arising in, 364. 
Citizen-cadet, in Ancient Greece, 14. 
City class, rise of, 106; in U.S., 363. 
City life, revival of, 106. 
City school societies in U.S., 358. 
Code Napoleon, 273, 284. 
Colet, John, 147, 148. 
College de France, 144; de Guyenne, I44- 
Colleges in the U.S., by i860, 389; by 1900, 

390; colonial, 388. 
Comenius, John Amos, 220-24. 
Commerce, revival of, 106. 
Communal colleges of France, 595. 
Compulsory school attendance, 448-49. 
Condorcet, 281, 329, 333. 
Connecticut, Barnard in, 690; Law of 1650, 

196, 
Constance, Council of, 155. 
Constantine accepts Christianity, 49. 
Constantine, of Carthage, 115. 
Constituent Assembly of France, 278. 
Constitutional government begins, in Amer- 
ica, 267-70; in France, 271; in other lands, 

273- 
Convention, National, of France, 282-84. 
Convents, and their schools, 76, 83. 
Copernicus, Nicholas, 207. 
Council of Constance, 155. 
Council of Trent, 161, 179. 
Counting-board, Greek, 11; Roman, 34. 
Court schools of Italy, 142-44. 
Cousin, Victor, 329, 751. 
Crusade movement, 104-06. 
Cuba, education in, 442. 

Dame School, in England, 239; in U.S., 193, 
361. 

Dante, 130. 

Dartmouth College decision, 391. 

Deaf, education of, 450. 

Defectives, education of, 450. 

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, 265. 

Democracy, spread of idea, 273, 458. 

Denmark, educational system of, 396. 

Dewey, John, 435-37- 

Dialectic, in Seven Liberal Arts, 86; super- 
sedes Grammar, 100. 

Diderot, 260, 278, 511. 

Diesterweg, 316, 582. 

Dinter, G. F., 316-17. 

Directory, the, in France, 284. 

Discipline, school, 244; by a Swabian 
schoolmaster, 244-45. 

Disputation, university, 119. 

Dutch, early education among, 175-78. 



Education a national tool, 410; problems of, 
in the future, 456. 

Educational societies, in England, 344; in 
U.S., 358. 

Eighteenth century, importance of, 253. 

Elementarwerk of Basedow, 295. 

Elementary school curriculum, evolution of, 
414-16. 

Encyclopaedia, first modern, 266. 

Engine, steam, 266. 

England, Annexation Law of 1902, 348; early 
child labor laws, 447; educational system 
evolved, 349; Fisher Education Act of 
1918, 349; progress since 1870, 348; pupil- 
teacher system in, 346; Reform Bill 3f 
1832, 346, 441; of 1867, 347, 441. 

English Bible, 231. 

English eighteenth-century educational ef- 
forts, 336. 

English grammar _.:hools, 147-48. 

English Law of 1833, 346. 

English Law of 1870, 348. 

English liberty, beginnings of, 261. 

English parliamentary battle for schools, 

344-49- 
English period of philanthropic effort, 338- 

44- 
Ephebic oath, the, 15. 
Ephebic years, in ancient Greece, 15. 
Episcopal schools, 53. 
Erasmus, 139. 

Ernest, Duke, educational work of, 168,315. 
Euclid, translations of, 98. 
Europe, illiteracy in, in 1900, 397. 

Faculties, in a mediaeval university, 117. 

Farraday, 404. 

Fellenberg and his Institutions, 302. 

Feudalism, 87. 

Fichte, J. G., 31.5- 

Finland, education in, 158, 396; manual 
training in, 428. 

Five-Mile Act, the, 172. 

Florence, Medicean Library at, 135; revival 
of study of Greek at, 133. 

France, creation of primary education in, 
325; educational organization under Na- 
poleon, 325-28; eighteenth-century condi- 
tions in, 259; higher schools created by 
Napoleon, 327; Law of 1793, 282; Law of 
1795, 283, 325; Law of 1802, 325-27; Law 
of 1833, 330-32; progress since 1870, 332; 
revolution in thinking, in i8th century, 
260; revolutionary pedagogy of, 276-83; 
school system created, 331; special revolu- 
tionary foundations, 283-84; University 
of, created, 327. 

Francke's Institutions, 413. 

Frederick the Great, 234, 246, 255-56; 311- 

13- 
Frederick William I, 255. 



INDEX 



111 



French Revolution, 270-72. 
Froebel, Fr., 424-28. 

Galen, 103. 

Galileo, G., 208. 

Gallaudet, Thos. R., 450. 

Gaza, Theodorus, 144. 

Geneva, center of Calvinism, 175. 

Geographical discovery, revival of, 137. 

Geometry, in Seven Liberal Arts, 86. 

Gerhard of Cremona, 98. 

German education, development of. See 

Prussia. 
German school organization, early, 169, 308. 
Girls, education of, in early Church, 55. 
Gotha, Duke Ernest's work in, 168, 315. 
Grammar, at Rome, 35; in Seven Liberal 

Arts, 86, 116, 118. 
Grammar schools, English, 147-48; 349. 
Grammaticus, 35. 
Grammatist, school of, 10. 
Gratian organizes Canon Law, 103. 
Greece, early education in, 7; golden age of, 

19; land and government of, 5; our debt 

to, 25, 456. 
Greek Church, in education in East, 319. 
Greek conquest of Eastern Mediterranean, 

24. 
Greek education, the old, 3-18; the new, 19- 

27; results under old, 15. 
Greek higher education, spread and influence 

of, 24. 
Greek language and learning, preservation 

of, 26. 
Greek learning, in Syria, 96; forgotten, 51; 

revival of, 133. 
Greek universities, ancient, 23. 
Gregorian calendar, 210. 
Guarino da Verona, 133. 
Guilds of Middle Ages, 108; university de- 
grees in, 115, 116. 
Guizot, M., 330. 
Giilliver's Travels, 265. 
Gymnasia, German, 222, 312, 316, 319. 
Gymnasial training in Ancient Greece, 13. 
Gymnasium, ancient Greek, 14, 272; Sturm's, 

147; Comenius, 222. 
Gymnastics in Greek education, 12-15. 

Hanseatic League, 107. 

Haroun-al-Raschid, 96. 

Harris, WiUiam T., 426. 

Harvard College, early history of, 193, 389; 

founding of, 193. 
Health, new interest in, 452. 
Health supervision, 452. 
Hebrews, early, 45-47. 
Hecker, Julius, 311, 413. 
Hedge schools, 241. 
Hellenization of Eastern Mediterranean, 24; 

of Rome, 32. 



Herbart, J. Fr., 419-24; contributions of,423. 
Herbartian ideas, in Germany, 422; in U.S., 

422; Herbartian method, 421. 
High school, in U.S., battle to establish, 384- 

88; first, 387; for agriculture, 802; Massa- 
chusetts law of 1827, 387. 
Hippocrates, 103. 
Hodder's Arithmetic, 237. 
Holland, education in, 177, 396. 
Horn Book, 234, 235. 

Huguenots, 159, 176, 356; in education, 176. 
Humanism, a religious reform movement, 

154; in France, 144; in England, 147-48; 

in Germany, 145; rise and spread of, 142- 

150. 
Humanistic course of study, 143. 
Humanistic reaUsm, 213-16. 
Humboldt, Wilhelm von. work of, in creating 

the University of Berlin, 319. 
Huxley, Thomas, 350. 

Illiteracy, in Europe by 1900, 397. 
Industrial revolution, 406, 443; effects of, 

on education, 407, 408-11. 
Industry, revival of, in Middle Ages, 106. 
Infant schools, in England, 342-44; in U.S., 

361. 
Innovators, ideas of, 219. 
Institute of France, 281. 
Institutes of Justinian, 102. 
Institutions created by Convention in 

France, 283. 
Irnerius of Bologna, 102, 115. 

Japan, education in, 400; school system cre- 
ated, 401. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 287. 
Jerome, St., 55. 
Jesuit colleges, 180. 
Jesuit education, 178-82. 
Jesuit methods, 180. 
Jesuit teachers, training of, 181. 
Jesus, his teachings, 47. 
Jesus, Society of, 178-82. 
Jewish faith, early, 45-'47- 
Joseph II, 256. 
Justinian, Institutes of, 102. 

Kalamazoo decision, 387. 

Kepler, Johann, 208. 

Kindergarten idea, 424; contribution of, 

427; in U.S., 425-26; origin of, 424; spread 

of, 426. 
King's College (Columbia), 390. 
Knight, the, 89. 
Knox, John, 178. 

Lakanal, his law, 283. 
Lancaster, Joseph, 339. 
Lancastrian system, in England, 339-41 : 
in U.S., 342, 360. 



IV 



INDEX 



Land grants for education, in U.S., 356. 
La Salle, educational work of, 1S3-84; 234, 

413- 
I^atin grammar schools, in England, 147-48; 
in New England, 193, 386; in Middle Ages, 

85- 
Law, canon, 103. 

Law, evolution of, as a study, 101-03. 
Legislative Assembly, France, 280, 
Leonard and Gertrude, 297. 
Lepelletier le Saint-Fargeau, 283. 
Libraries, early monastic, 74; university, 119. 
License to teach, first, 93. 
Lily's Latin Grammar, 147, 281. 
Lister and antiseptics, 405. 
Literature, in ancient Greek education, 11. 
Living conditions, transformation of, in 19th 

century, 407. 
Locke, John, 217, 230-32. 
Lombard League, the, 102. 
Loyola, Ignatius, 179. 
Ludi magister, the, 33, 34. 
Luther, Martin, 156; his Theses, 157; his 

educational ideas, 166-67. 
Lutheran school organization, 166-70. 
Lycees, creation of, under Law of 1802, 326, 

333. 
Lyceum, the, 23. 
Lyell, Charles, 405. 

Macaulay, Lord, 347. 

Madison, James, 288. 

Magellan, 139. 

Mann, Horace, on Prussian Teachers' Sem- 
inaries, 317; work in estabhshing normal 
schools, 417; work in Massachusetts, 379- 
80, 382, 388. 

Manual activities in education, 427-30; con- 
tribution of, 429; origin of instruction in, 
427; spread of the idea of, 428. 

Manual-labor school idea, 302. 

Manufacturing, rise of, 265. 

Manuscripts, copying of, 74. 

Maria Theresa, 256. 

Massachusetts Law of 1642, 194; Law of 
1647, 19s, Law of 1827, 387. 

Massachusetts school system, fight for secu- 
lar schools, 382 ; fundamental basis of, 196; 
State Board of Education created, 379. 

Maurus, R., 86. 

Mediaeval Church, repressive attitude of, 92. 

Mediaeval education, characteristics of, 91- 
94. 

Mediaeval man, transformation of, 130. 

Media:ivalism, reaction against, 149. 

Medical inspection in schools, 452. 

Medi9al instruction, beginnings of, 103. 

Medicean Library, 135. 

Medici, Cosimo de, 135. 

Melancthon, 145. 

Mercator's map of the world, 210. 



Methods of teaching, evolution of new, 418. 

Middle Ages, deadly sins of, 92; problems 
faced by, 69; what started with, 55. 

Migrations of peoples, to U.S., 443. 

Mill, John Stuart, 345. 

Milton, John, 214. 

Minnesingers, rise of, 99, 130. 

Mirabeau, Count de, 279. 

Mohammedans in Spain, 96-99; influence 
of, on Europe, 98. 

Monasteries, ci vi lizing work of, 68 ; in Charle- 
magne's day, 75; preserve learning, 71-76. 

Monastic collections, 132. 

Monastic schools, 54, 83, 85. 

Monasticism, rise of, 54. 

Monitorial system, in England, 338-42; in 
U.S., 360. 

Montaigne, 216. 

Monte Cassino, 54, 104. 

Montesquieu, 260. 

Music, in ancient Greece, 12; in Seven Lib- 
eral Arts, 86. 

Napoleon and technical education, 327; or- 
ganizing work of, in France, 325-28. 

National Convention of France, 282; work 
of, 282-84. 

Nationality, rise of spirit of, 254; schools to 
promote, 442. 

Nations, educational problems of the future 
of, 458-60. 

Nestorian Christians, 96. 

New England, beginning of schools in, 193. 

New England Primer, 201, 286. 

New Jersey, elimination of charity school 
in, 375- 

Newspapers, first, 264 

Newton, Sir Isaac, 208, 226, 261. 

New York, attempt to divide the school 
funds in, 383; early educational history 
in, 198; elimination of rate bill in, 377, 
first State Superintendent, 378. 

New Zealand, education in, 399. 

Nicene Creed, 51. 

Nobility, training of, in early Middle Ages, 
87^1. 

Normal school, contribution of Pestalozzi to 
work of, 299, 414; in Prussia, 302, 316, 
317; in U.S., 4i6-i_,. 

Northmen, invasions of, 80. 

Nunneries, 76. 

OberschulecoUegium Board created, 313; 

abohshed, 315. 
Odyssey, translation of, into Latin, 32. 
Orbis Pictus, 223. 
Orphans, care of, 242. 
Owen, Robert, 343. 

Pagan learning, rejection of, in West, 51. 
Page, a, 88. 



INDEX 



Palace School of Charlemagne, 78. 

Palaestra, in ancient Greece, 13, 34. 

Papal schism, the, 155. 

Paper, invention of, T36. 

Parish school of early Middle Ages, 84. 

Pasteur, Louis, 405. 

Pauper school idea, in England, 336; in U.S., 
373-76. 

Peabody, Elizabeth, 426. 

Pedagogy. See Education. 

Pennsylvania, early educational history of, 
198; settlement of, 189. 

Pennsylvania, Law of 1834, 374. 

Percyvall, John, 148. 

Peru, education in, 400. 

Pestalozzi, and Basedow compared, 304-05; 
and Froebel, 424; contribution of, 299; to 
teacher-training problem, 414-16; Prussia 
sends teachers to study work of, 302, 316; 
spread of ideas of, 301; work of, 297-302. 

Petrarch, 131, 132, 142. 

Philadelphia, educational beginnings in, 199, 
359- 

Phlanthropinum of Basedow, 295. 

Philippines, education in, 442. 

Pilgrimages, in Middle Ages, 105. 

Pilgrim s Progress, 265. 

Plato, 23. 

Political influences modify school, 440-46. 

Poor -Law legislation in England, 446. 

Porto Rico, education in, 442. 

Ptolemy's Almagest, 98. 

Precenter, the, 93. 

Presbyterians, Scotch, 159, 178. 

Press, freedom of, 264. 

Primer, the New England, 235, 286. 

Primer, the religious, 235. 

Principia Regulative, the, 309. 

Printing, invention of, 136. 

Private adventure schools, 238-42, 336. 

Probejahr, the, 319. 

Protestant revolts, results of, 157, 164. 

Protestant school organization, 168. 

Prussia, benevolent rulers of, 254; earliest 
school laws for, 309-13; earliest Teachers' 
Seminaries in, 317 f.; humiliation of, 314; 
regeneration of, 314-22. 

Prussian school systeni, 19th-century char- 
acteristics evolved, 321; modern purpose 
of, 322. 

Psychology, becomes the master science, 
418. 

Public meetings, first in England, 264. 

Public School Society of N.Y., 358. 

Punishments, school, 244. 

Puritans, the, 160, 191, 264. 

Quadrivium, the, 86. 
QuintiHan, 35, 133. 

Quintilian's Inslitutcs of Oratory, recovered, 
133, 143. 



Rabelais, Fr., 214. 

Ragged Schools, 338. 

Raikes, Robert, 337. 

Rate bill, elimination of, in U.S., 376-78, 

Ratke, Wolfgang, 219. 

Reading, in ancient Greece, 11. 

Realism in education, 213-226. 

Reformation, the Protestant, 153-62; and 
education, 184-87. 

Reform Bill, of 1832 in England, 346, 441 ; of 
1867 in England, 347, 441. 

Rein, William, 422. 

Religions in the Roman world, 44. 

Religious freedom, 160, 169, 269. 

ReUgious societies for education in England, 
240-42, 336-38. 

Religious theory for schools, 232, 312; v/eak- 
ening of, 233, 266, 284. 

Revival of learning, 129-39, 205; signifi- 
cance of, 142, 153. 

Revolution in France, results of, 272. 

Revolutionary War in U.S., efifect of, on edu- 
cation, 354. 

Rhetoric, in Seven Liberal Arts, 86; law 
separates from, 103; schools of, at Rome, 
36. 

Rhode Island, Barnard in, 380-81. 

Robiiison Crusoe, 265. 

Rolland, 277. 

Roman cities, fate of, loi ; survival of law in, 
102. 

Roman education, schools die out, 51; uni- 
versity in, 36. 

Roman law, influence of, 38, 102. 

Rome, barbarian inroads on, 63; debt to, 
40; education and work of, 28-43; great 
mission of, 29, 38-41. 

Rousseau, Jean Jacques, 232, 260, 276, 291- 
94- 

Russia, benevolent despots of, 258; work of 
Catherine II, 258. 

St. Paul's School, 147. 
Salerno, rise of medical study at, 104. 
Sanitary science, creation of, 405. 
Saxe-Gotha, Duke Ernest's work in, 168, 

315- 

Schism, the papal, 155. 

Scholastic theology, rise of, 99-101. 

Scholasticus, 53, 93. 

School conditions by 1750, 232-250. 

School societies, in England, 240-42, 336-38; 
in U.S., 358, 359._ 

School support, beginnings of, 246. 

Science, loss and recovery of, 210; in indus- 
try, 405, 406; in medicine, 405; in schools, 
430-31; in university, 405. 

Scientific knowledge, advance of, in 19th 
century, 404, applications of, 405. 

Scientific method, beginnings ot, 207-10. 

Scotland, early education in, 178; later, 396. 



VI 



INDEX 



Sectarian instruction, elimination of, in 

France, 353; in U.S.. 381-84. 
Sense realism in education, 218-24. 
Seven Liberal Arts, in Middle Ages, 86; in 

Rome, 36. 
Seven Perfections of Chivalry, 90, 
Siam, education in, 403. 
Silesian School Code of 1765, 312. 
S.P.C.K., 240, 336. 
S.P.G., 336. 
Social realism, 216-18. 
Sociological influences in education, 434-37. 
Socrates, 22. 
Song schools, 84. 
Sophists, the, 20. 

Spain, 18th-century benevolent rulers, 257. 
Sparta, education in, 7-8. 
Spellers, early, 236. 
Spencer, Herbert, 431-33. 
Squire, a, 89. 

State Board of Education, first, 379. 
State control idea, beginnings of, 247, 275; 

general acceptance of, 403; spread of, 395- 

404. 
State school superintendent, first, 378. 
State school systems, as now organized, 445. 
State supervision of schools, establishment 

in the U.S., 378-84. 
State theory of education, general accept- 
ance of, 403. 
State universities in U.S., beginnings, 391; 

efTect of Dartmouth College decision on, 

391. 
States General in France, 271. 
Studium generale, evolution of, 113, 118. 
Sturm, Johann, 146. 
Suffrage, extension of, in England, 346, 347, 

441; in U.S., 365; educational significance 

of extension of, 366, 441. 
Sunday Schools, in England, 337; in U.S., 

357- 
Superior children, education of, 451. 
Sweden, manual instruction in, 428. 
Sydenham, Thomas, 210. 

Talleyrand, 280, 282. 

Taxation for education, beginnings of, in 
U.S., 370. 

Teacher training, beginnings of, 413; con- 
tributions of Pestalozzi to, 414-16; the 
first normal schools, 413-18. 

Teachers' certificates, first, 93. 

Teachers, character of, in i8th century, 238, 
242. 

Teachers' Seminaries in Germany, 317. 

Teaching methods by i8th century, 243. 

Tetzel and indulgences, 156. 

Textbooks by the i8th century, 234. 

Theology, rise of study of, 99-101. 

Thirty Years' War, the, 160, 186. 



Tournaments, 87. 

Trade and commerce, revival of, 106. 

Trent, Council of, 161, 179. 

Trivium, the, 86, 116. 

Troubadours, rise of, 99, 130. 

Truce of God, 88, 99. 

Turgot, 260, 278. 

Twelve Tables, the, 30, 31. 

United States, awakening an educational 
consciousness in, 353-68; battles for 
schools, and alignments of people, 367-70; 
beginnings of State universities, 391; of 
teacher training, 417; early colleges in, 
356; efifect of Revolutionary War on edu- 
cation, 354. 

Universities, evolution of, 114; faculties in, 
117; instruction in, 118; in the U S., State, 
391; of ancient Greek world, 24, 36; pub- 
lic force, a, 122. 

University expansion, recent, 444. 

University of Alexandria, 25. 

University of Athens, 23. 

University of Berlin, 319. 

University of France, 327. 

Uprising of Prussia of 1813, 315, 318. 

Urbino. Ducal library at, 136. 

Vatican Library founded, 136. 

Vernacular schools, introduction of science 

instruction into, 225; rise of, 165, 225, 229. 
Vespasiano, 135. 
Virchow, 405. 

Virginia, early educational history, 199. 
Vittarino da Feltre, 143. 
Volksschule, German, 318, 321. 
Voltaire, 260, 261 . 
Voluntary educational system in England, 

335-44; work of, in establishing schools, 

342. 

Waldenseemiiller, his Geography, 138. 

Washington, George, 287; his will, 356. 

Watt, James, 266. 

Wesley, John, 337. 

Westphalia, Peace of, 160, 225, 834. 

Whitbread, 345. 

White man's burden, the, of future, 458-61. 

Winchester School founded, 148. 

Writing schools, 238. 

Wiirtemberg, plan of 1559, 167. 

Yale College, founding of, 196. 
York, cathedral school at, 76. 
Yverdon, 299, 416. 

Zeller, Carl August, 316. 
Zeno, the Stoic, 23. 
Ziller, Tuiskon, 422. 
Zwingli, Huldreich, 158, 



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THE INTELLIGENCE OF SCHOOL CHILDREN. 
By L. M. Terman. 

Methods of Teaching 

TEACHING LITERATURE IN THE GRAMMAR GRADES AND HIGH 
SCHOOL. 

By Emma M. Bolenius. 

HOW TO TEACH THE FUNDAMENTAL SUBJECTS, 
By C. N. Kendall and G. A. Mirick. 

HOW TO TEACH THE SPECIAL SUBJECTS. 
By C. N. Kendall and G. A. Mirick. 

SILENT AND ORAL READING. 
By C. R. Stone. 

THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE IN THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 

By G. H. Trafton, State Normal School, Mankato, INIinnesota. 

TEACHING IN RURAL SCHOOLS. 

By T. J. Woofter, University of Georgia. 

Secondary Education 

THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL. 

By Thos. H. Briggs, Columbia University. 

THE TEACHING OF ENGLISH IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOL 

By Charles Swain Thomas. 

PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. 

By Alexander Inglis, Harvard University. 

PROBLEMS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION. 
By David Snedden, Columbia University. 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

XQ26b 



VOCATIONAL PREPARATION 



THE VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE OF YOUTH 

By Meyer Bloomfielc: 
A monograph by the former Director of the Vocation Bureau of Boston. 

YOUTH, SCHOOL, AND VOCATION By Meyer Bioomfielr 

A first-hand presentation of the meaning and work of the vocationci guidanc 
movement. 

CHOOSING A VOCATION By Frank Parsons 

This book is an indispensable manual for every vocational counselor. 

THE PROBLEM OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

By David Snedden 
The author is the Professor of Education, Teachers College, and one of the 
leaders in the movement for the closer adaptation of public schools to the actual 
needs of youth. 

PREVOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

By Frank M. Leavitt and Edith Brown 

The first authoritative book to tell how the public schools may prepare pupils tc 
select wisely the work to which they are best adapted. 

THE PEOPLE'S SCHOOL By Ruth Mary Weeks 

A statement regarding the vocational training movement in this country and 
abroad. 

VOCATIONS FOR GIRLS 

By Mary A. Lasell*; and Katherine Wiley 
Information as to conditions of work and the opportunities in the more common 
vocations open to girls with only a high-school education. 

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 

By David Snedden, Ruth Mary Weeks, and Ellwood P Cubberley 
A combination of three volumes from the Riverside Edticational Monographi 
treating different phases of vocational education, — theory, administration, and 
practice. 

PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF INDUSTRIAL 

EDUCATION By William H. Dooley 

This is a book for use in teacher training classes. There is an Introduction by 
Charles A. Prosser, and an equipment of thought stimulating questions, togetbti 
with reading references and courses of study. 

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION : Its Problems, Methods, 
and Dangers By Albert H. Leak? 

A study and criticism of the opportunities provided for the education of the 

industrial worker. 

ESTABLISHING INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS 

By Harry Bradley Smith 

A practical discussion of the steps to be taken in establishing industrial schools 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

IQOS 



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